The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word LILLE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
L
I
L
L
E
More clues leading to the result LILLE
- Little England starts to seize run-down continental town
- Flanders city romance featuring two lecturers
- Large, seedy, eastern European city
- European city, centre of excellence in fabrication
- Edrich initially dropped by Thomson’s partner where French cricket might be played?
- City poorly covered in French article
- Fib about liberal student town
- Border city tail removed by Australian paceman
- City badly kept by the French
- Tale — crossing lines in French city
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "City" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case city = lille.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.