The French certainly have a bit of interest in time off work (7)
I believe the answer is:
leisure
'time off work' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the french certainly have a bit of interest' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'le'.
'certainly' becomes 'sure' ('sure' can be a synonym of 'certainly').
'have' indicates putting letters inside.
'a bit of interest' becomes 'i' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'le'+'sure'='lesure'
'lesure' enclosing 'i' is 'LEISURE'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for leisure that I've seen before include "Time to rest and enjoy" , "Enjoyment of free time" , "Free time; relaxation" , "days off" , "Time away from work" .)