The girl from city of N.E. France (5)
I believe the answer is:
nancy
'e france' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'the girl from city of' is the wordplay.
'the girl' becomes 'nan'.
'from' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'city of' becomes 'cy' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'nan'+'cy'='NANCY'
'n' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nancy that I've seen before include "Birthplace of Edmond de Goncourt" , "Fruit" , "one of the Mitford sisters" , "Dickensian murder victim - city in northeast France" , "in Oliver?" .)