Poles with stake in French city (6)
I believe the answer is:
nantes
'french city' is the definition.
(Nantes is a city in France)
'poles with stake' is the wordplay.
'poles' becomes 'ns' (North and South poles).
'with' indicates putting letters inside.
'stake' becomes 'ante' (stake in poker).
'ns' placed around 'ante' is 'NANTES'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for nantes that I've seen before include "Port city on the Loire estuary" , "A major French port" , "City and port of W. France on the Loire" , "City on the Loire, associated with 1598 edict ending the French Wars of Religion" , "Ann set out for the French town" .)