Explosion of national ecstasy around France for French fabulist (2,8)

I believe the answer is:

la fontaine

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'fabulist' is the definition.
(I know that La Fontaine has the occupation fabulist)

'explosion of national ecstasy around france' is the wordplay.
'explosion of' indicates anagramming the letters.
'ecstasy' becomes 'E' (informal term for the drug).
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'france' becomes 'f'.
'national'+'e'='nationale'
'nationale' is an anagram of 'laontaine'.
'laontaine' enclosing 'f' is 'LA FONTAINE'.

'for french' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for la fontaine that I've seen is " French fable writer".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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