A surprise to begin with the French (7)
I believe the answer is:
startle
'a surprise' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'begin with the french' is the wordplay.
'begin' becomes 'start' (synonyms).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'start'+'le'='STARTLE'
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for startle that I've seen before include "Cause shock to" , "Make jump" , "Surprise with fright" , "Surprise with starlet" , "Alarm suddenly" .)