Les Bleus had toiled to beat the 131st-ranked Icelanders 3-2 on Sunday, with defensive frailties exposed as they fell 2-0 behind before coming back to win the game.
France coach Laurent Blanc insisted that the first friendly ahead of the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine would be about rebuilding fitness and rediscovering rhythm after a short break at the end of the season.
And the second friendly in Reims showed signs that lessons had been learned.
Two goals from Franck Ribery and Florent Malouda in the opening quarter of an hour were enough to see off a largely outclassed Serbian outfit not bound for the Euros.
But Blanc's happy evening was marred by what seemed like a nasty injury to Rennes midfielder Yann M'Vila, linked with an off-season move to Arsenal.
M'Vila had his left ankle turned nastily in the first contact of the match with Dusan Tadic.
He soldiered on for a couple of minutes but had to be replaced by Alou Diarra, his right shin immediately bandaged on his arrival in the dugout before he was whipped away to hospital by ambulance.
The match was France's first since Blanc announced his final 23-man squad for the Euros, with Lyon playmaker Yoann Gourcuff and Montpellier defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa the two men axed from his provisional squad.
And it was two veterans who provided the goals.
In the 11th minute, Ribery kicked off a move down the left wing, injecting pace through to Gael Clichy whose cross was parried back by Serbian goalkeeper Zeljko Brkic to the oncoming Bayern Munich midfielder who had moved to the corner of the penalty area.
The Frenchman mastered the bounce back to hammer the ball back past the hapless keeper.
Just four minutes later, Malouda produced a stunning left-foot shot into the corner of the net after the Serbian defence had lost the ball under pressure from Anthony Reveillere 30 metres out from the goal posts.
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