State where in the Vosges one’s intercepting climber (9)
I believe the answer is:
louisiana
'state' is the definition.
(I know that Louisiana is a state)
'in the vosges one's intercepting climber' is the wordplay.
'in the' is an insertion indicator.
'vosges' becomes 'ous' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'intercepting' means one lot of letters goes inside another (I've seen this in other clues).
'climber' becomes 'liana' (climbing plant).
'ous' placed around 'i' is 'ouis'.
'ouis' put into 'liana' is 'LOUISIANA'.
'where' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for louisiana that I've seen before include "State named for French king" , "Southern United State on the Gulf of Mexico" , "US southern state" , "IOU a snail over in the US state" , "that's near Mississippi" .)