Smartness? To the French, Paris say, holds recipe (8)
I believe the answer is:
alacrity
'smartness?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'to the french paris say holds recipe' is the wordplay.
'to the french' becomes 'ala'.
'paris say' becomes 'city' (paris is a kind of city).
'holds' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'recipe' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'city' placed around 'r' is 'crity'.
'ala'+'crity'='ALACRITY'
(Other definitions for alacrity that I've seen before include "Prompt readiness and briskness" , "'Briskness, promptness (8)'" , "Enthusiasm; speed" , "Eager haste" , "Showing brisk readiness" .)