French name, impressive thing to note (6)

I believe the answer is:

gaston

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'french name impressive' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'thing to note' is the wordplay.
'thing' becomes 'gas' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'note' becomes 'n' (abbreviation).
'gas'+'to'+'n'='GASTON'

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I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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