Large shower during journey obscuring the odd area of France (8)
I believe the answer is:
lorraine
'area of france' is the definition.
(I know that Lorraine is part of France)
'large shower during' is the wordplay.
'large' becomes 'lore' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'shower' becomes 'rain' (synonyms).
'during' is an insertion indicator.
'lore' going around 'rain' is 'LORRAINE'.
'journey obscuring the odd' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lorraine that I've seen before include "part of France" , "French duchy" , "See 14" , "Girl's name - Nancy's region" , "French region bordering Germany" .)