Tale — Crossing lines in French city (5)
I believe the answer is:
lille
'french city' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'tale crossing lines' is the wordplay.
'tale' becomes 'lie' (tale can mean a lie or invention).
'crossing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'lines' becomes 'll' (I've seen this in other clues).
'lie' placed around 'll' is 'LILLE'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for lille that I've seen before include "Stop before Paris" , "Industrial city of northern France" , "City of N. France" , "City in northern France, Flanders" , "Eurostar stop" .)