Wake up in French quarter — outside as it happens (7)
I believe the answer is:
enliven
'wake up' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'in french quarter outside as it happens' is the wordplay.
'in french' becomes 'en' ('en' can be French for 'in' e.g. en France).
'quarter' becomes 'n'.
'outside' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'as it happens' becomes 'live' (as in live television).
'en'+'n'='enn'
'enn' placed around 'live' is 'ENLIVEN'.
(Other definitions for enliven that I've seen before include "Put zip or vim into" , "Give spirit to, brighten" , "Invigorate" , "Increase appeal" , "Make more cheerful" .)