The Scots started their Six Nations campaign with a thrilling first win over Ireland in four years.
They beat France for the first time in 10 years last season at home, but have lost on their past nine trips to Paris.
"It is a long time ago since we won there but we understand there is a reason for that," said Laidlaw.
"France are a good team and it is a hard place to win. We are under no illusions this week - we need to be on top form to get something out of the game.
"We'll need accuracy and we need to be physical and aggressive because the French are big men. But we need to be subtle and clever in our attack.
"If we do that, and move France about and play for 80 minutes, I would back our fitness against them. But we obviously need to be in the game right to the death and not let France get any momentum."
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France have not finished in the top half of the Six Nations since 2011, but impressed in narrow defeats by New Zealand and Australia in the autumn, and came close to a shock victory against England at Twickenham in their Six Nations opener.
"They have improved massively under [coach] Guy Noves and have not been far away from any team they have played," Laidlaw noted. "They have some really dangerous strike runners throughout the team.
"As much as we need to understand why we beat them last year, we need to develop that, be clever and smart and be able to score points.
"We need to keep doing what we are doing well, keep our skills high and if we do that again this weekend, we are going to put ourselves in a strong position.
"The start of the game is massively important, whether it is our kick-off, or or us receiving. It is very important psychologically for them as it is for us.
"If we can start the game playing in the right areas of the field for the first 20 minutes and not muck about too much in our own half, hopefully we will put them under pressure and upset the crowd a little bit."
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Captain Greg Laidlaw says Scotland must be "subtle and clever" as well as match France physically if they are to secure a first win in Paris since 1999.