During September, the French lie quiet

I believe the answer is:

sleep

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'lie quiet' is the definition.
'sleep' can be an answer for 'quiet' (thesaurus). I am unsure of the 'lie' bit.

'during september the french' is the wordplay.
'during' indicates putting letters inside.
'september' becomes 'sep' (short for September).
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'sep' enclosing 'le' is 'SLEEP'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sleep that I've seen before include "Be dormant" , "Drop off" , "Doze, nap" , "Produced (egg)" , "Wayne _; former Royal Ballet principal dancer" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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