The Leicester Tigers lock gained his sixth senior cap of the season as a late replacement in last weekend's defeat by Ireland at Murrayfield and has again been named on the bench.
Coach Frank Hadden has kept faith with the experienced Scott Murray and Nathan Hines in the second row, but has made five changes in the starting XV plus two positional switches.
Scrum-half Rory Lawson and hooker Ross Ford make their first starts for Scotland, wing Nikki Walker gains his first starting cap for five years, and there is a return too for centre Andrew Henderson and No.8 Johnnie Beattie.
Chris Paterson moves from wing to full-back following Hugo Southwell's shoulder injury and Rob Dewey will be at outside centre.
Omitted from the team defeated 18-19 by Ireland are Dougie Hall, Chris Cusiter, Marcus Di Rollo and Dave Callam.
Scotland team (vs France away, Saturday, kick-off 3.30pm GMT)
15 Chris Paterson (Edinburgh Rugby, captain)
14 Sean Lamont (Northampton Saints)
13 Rob Dewey (Edinburgh Rugby)
12 Andrew Henderson (Glasgow Warriors)
11 Nikki Walker (The Ospreys)
10 Dan Parks (Glasgow Warriors)
9 Rory Lawson (Gloucester)
1 Gavin Kerr (Border Reivers)
2 Ross Ford (Border Reivers)
3 Euan Murray (Glasgow Warriors)
4 Nathan Hines (Perpignan)
5 Scott Murray (Edinburgh Rugby)
6 Simon Taylor (Edinburgh Rugby)
7 Kelly Brown (Border Reivers)
8 Johnnie Beattie (Glasgow Warriors)
Replacements
16 Dougie Hall (Edinburgh Rugby)
17 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh Rugby)
18 James Hamilton (Leicester Tigers)
19 Allister Hogg (Edinburgh Rugby)
20 Chris Cusiter (Border Reivers)
21 Marcus Di Rollo (Edinburgh Rugby)
22 Rory Lamont (Glasgow Warriors)
