Avoid the girl of the French (5)
I believe the answer is:
evade
'avoid' is the definition.
(I know that evade is a more specific form of the action escape)
'girl of the french' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'eva' (girl's name).
'of the french' becomes 'de' ('of the' in French).
'eva'+'de'='EVADE'
'the' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for evade that I've seen before include "temptress conveying commercial message" , "Escape (something)" , "Dodge or equivocate" , "Dodge, elude" , "Shirk" .)