Vaulted area in the French parliament vacated (5)
I believe the answer is:
leapt
'vaulted' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'area in the french parliament vacated' is the wordplay.
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'vacated' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'parliament' with its centre taken out is 'pt'.
'le'+'pt'='lept'
'a' inserted into 'lept' is 'LEAPT'.
(Other definitions for leapt that I've seen before include "gone up dramatically" , "moved up quickly" , "Made spring" , "Jumped, sprang" , "Jumped on plate" .)