The French city near Montpellier, turning influential (7)
I believe the answer is:
seminal
'influential' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for seminal that I've seen before include "Original and influential" , "Menials (anag) - creative" , "Rudimentary, influential" , "Strongly influencing future developments" , "Generating new developments for menials" .)