French city's leafy, open fringes (4)

I believe the answer is:

lyon

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'french city's' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'leafy open fringes' is the wordplay.
'open' suggests taking the first letters (I've seen 'opens' mean this).
'fringes' becomes 'yon' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The first letter of 'leafy' is 'l'.
'l'+'yon'='LYON'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lyon that I've seen before include "City of south-central France" , "French city on the Rhone" , "City of central France" , "River port, capital of the Rhone department" , "Southern French city" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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