The French go over a meadow (3)
I believe the answer is:
lea
'meadow' is the definition.
(a lea is a grassy area)
'the french go over a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'the french' could be 'le' ('the' in French) and 'le' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lea that I've seen before include "River flowing through London" , "Open grassy land; river" , "Tract of pastureland" , "Open arable land (poet.)" , "area of grassland" .)