Where grisettes used to go around in pairs (5)
I believe the answer is:
paris
'where grisettes' is the definition.
The answer is a location as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'to go around in pairs' is the wordplay.
'to go' becomes 'die' (synonyms).
'around' means to look at the middle letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'pairs' becomes 'pars' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The middle of 'die' is 'i'.
'i' going into 'pars' is 'PARIS'.
'used' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for paris that I've seen before include "Old prince" , "captivated Helen" , "Arc de Triomphe city" , "English chronicler" , "European capital -- Trojan prince" .)