That's life, in France, as people contend (3)
I believe the answer is:
vie
This might be a double definition.
'that's life in france' is the first definition.
('life' in French)
'contend' is the second definition.
(I know that contend can be written as vie)
'as people' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to one of the definitions.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vie that I've seen before include "Contend for superiority" , "Engage in rivalry" , "contest" , "I've got to contend" , "Try to do better than" .)