A French lot taking a time to make miserable (11)
I believe the answer is:
unfortunate
'miserable' is the definition.
('unfortunate' can be similar in meaning to 'miserable')
'a french lot taking a time' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is found in the answer.
'french' could be 'f' and 'f' is located in the answer.
'time' could be 't' and 't' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to make' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for unfortunate that I've seen before include "unlucky person" , "Miserable" , "Not lucky; regrettable" , "Hapless" , "Inauspicious" .)