France coach Bernard Laporte has made five changes to the pack which took to the field against Ireland in Croke Park ahead of his side's third Six Nations clash against Wales in Paris on Saturday.
Only three of the forwards who started in the 20-17 win over Ireland have made it into Laporte's line-up for the Stade de France game.
Nicolas Mas, who makes his bow in the tournament, and Olivier Milloud will be at prop, with Sylvain Marconnet dropping to the bench.
Biarritz's Jerome Thion is back in the second row to partner Lionel Nallet, while number eight Elvis Vermeulen starts his first game of the Six Nations and Julien Bonnaire returns at flanker, with Imanol Harinordoquy on the bench.
Laporte has kept faith with the back line that started against Ireland, meaning Aurelien Rougerie - who was recalled to the squad in place of Cedric Heymans - has to be content with a place among the replacements.
The halfback partnership of Pierre Mignoni and David Skrela gets another chance to shine.
France have won their opening two Six Nations matches, beating Italy 39-3 and then Ireland at Croke Park.
Meanwhile, France captain Fabien Pelous will not take any part in this year's tournament having failed to recover from an ankle injury.
The Toulouse lock sustained the problem in a Heineken Cup match against Llanelli Scarlets in December, but was expected to be back for at least part of the Six Nations.
However, Pelous has exacerbated the injury by returning to training too soon and Les Bleus team manager Jo Maso has now confirmed his skipper will not play in the tournament.
"Fabien is out for three weeks," Maso said. "He returned to Toulouse yesterday (Monday) evening to get treatment.
"He took a test, which revealed the ankle was bruised. There was an inflammation because Fabien wanted to return too quickly.
"He can't run for three weeks and is out of the tournament."
France XV
C Poitrenaud; V Clerc (both Toulouse), D Marty (Perpignan), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), C Dominici; D Skrela (both Stade Francais), P Mignoni (Clermont-Auvergne); O Milloud (Bourgoin), R Ibanez (Wasps, capt), N Mas (Perpignan), L Nallet (Castres), J Thion, S Betsen (Biarritz), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin), E Vermeulen (Clermont-Auvergne).
Replacements: B August (Biarritz), S Marconnet (Stade Francais), G Lamboley (Toulouse), I Harinordoquy, D Yachvili (Biarritz), L Beauxis (Stade Francais), A Rougerie (Clermont-Auvergne).
