Shortest-lived gathering for French cheese enthusiasts? (8)

I believe the answer is:

briefest

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'shortest' is the definition.
('brief' can be similar in meaning to 'short')

'cheese enthusiasts?' is the wordplay.
'cheese' becomes 'brie' (Brie is an example).
'enthusiasts?' becomes 'fest' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'brie'+'fest'='BRIEFEST'

'lived gathering for french' 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 briefest that I've seen before include "Least lengthy" , "Existing for the least amount of time" , "Extremely short" , "Of shortest duration" , "Finished first" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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