Very clean place the French sought at first (8)
I believe the answer is:
spotless
'very clean' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'place the french sought at first' is the wordplay.
'place' becomes 'spot' (synonyms).
'the french' becomes 'les' (les is the in french).
'at first' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'sought' is 's'.
'spot'+'les'+'s'='SPOTLESS'
(Other definitions for spotless that I've seen before include "Without a mark, completely clean" , "Perfect" , "free from sin" , "Immaculate" , "Without blemish" .)