In contrast to a frenetic finale, the scoreboard remained blank for an opening 29 minutes most notable for French mistakes.
The visitors enjoyed most of the ball, but also made a rash of handling errors in the London drizzle.
Wings Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud both knocked on in good positions, with Dupont spilling a Thomas Ramos pass as the line beckoned, much to the delight of the home fans.
England returned pointless from their one incursion into the France 22 as Yoram Moefana twice repelled Ollie Lawrence on the gainline.
Fin Smith had been promoted to fly-half to grease England’s attack but, perhaps unsurprisingly, there were some stutters, with a couple of tame grubbers handing back scarce England possession.
France finally made an attack stick as Dupont scampered across the pitch, went against the flow of England’s cover defence with a smart inside ball to Penaud and the wing ‘s deft nudge found Bordeaux-Begles team-mate Bielle-Biarrey for the try.
France, who won 53-10 on their last visit to Twickenham two years ago, couldn’t accelerate away though.
Instead England bounced back. Lawrence swatted aside Ramos to go in under the posts off some scrappy ball six minutes later.
Marcus Smith, whose wriggling break had set up the spell of pressure, duly clipped over the conversion for parity.
England have been in such positions before.
They led Ireland by five at the break last weekend. They were within two of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in the autumn. On each occasion, they ended up empty-handed.
This time, however, they crowbarred their way to victory.
France’s wastefulness continued as Bielle-Biarrey, under pressure from Ollie Sleightholme, butchered an outstanding opening; his loose basketball pass failed to find Peato Mauvaka after he had ripped the ball free of Marcus Smith and hurtled down the touchline.
Ramos’ boot instead landed two penalties to push France’s lead out to 13-7.
England resolutely kept in the fight. Fin Smith’s punted chip into the corner was snaffled by Northampton team-mate Freeman over the shorter Bielle-Biarrey just before the hour – the first of five tries in 20 enthralling final minutes.
France countered quickly with an overload of pace out wide giving Henry Slade too much ground to cover as Bielle-Biarrey put Penaud into the corner and France 18-12 up.
Marcus Smith was a constant danger with ball in hand, but endured two difficult moments as he fluffed a presentable penalty shot and knocked on an attempted flick pass on the French line.
But Harlequins team-mate Baxter bashed through from close range to move England a point clear with 10 to go.
Bielle-Biarrey looked to have inflicted another gut-punch late defeat on England, but, with his under-scrutiny replacements coming up trumps, head coach Steve Borthwick could finally revel in a famous win, complete with bonus point, after six defeats in their past seven games.
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