Appalling, the French record (9)
I believe the answer is:
chronicle
'record' is the definition.
(I know that chronicle is a type of record)
'appalling the french' is the wordplay.
'appalling' becomes 'chronic' (chronic can mean of poor quality).
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'chronic'+'le'='CHRONICLE'
(Other definitions for chronicle that I've seen before include "Continuous record of events in order of time" , "journal" , "(Keep an) historical record" , "Register of events over time" , "Historical account" .)