Probably installed in the bed of a very old arm of the Seine, the arsenal trench was a natural boundary of the fortified city Charles V wanted in 1366 to defend against enemy assaults.

 

 

More like a marsh than a river, this dead arm of the Seine (the arsenal trench) did have enough water for people to practice fishing, notably for frogs, which was a tenant farming concession by the city to individuals.

 

 

The trench fortification and development works continued over the centuries so that the arsenal trench because a water-filled basin during river flood periods, and at other time was developed for commerce or military needs.
 

 

This was the beginning of the modern era in the history of the Paris canals and the "Arsenal port.”

 

Napoleon asked a faithful veteran of the Egypt campaign, Pierre Simon Girard, to conduct the construction works of a canal to bring clean water into Paris from the Ourcq and Marne rivers.

At the same time as the works on the Ourcq, St Martin and St Denis canal projects were going on, Napoleon wanted them to include the construction of an actual port in the Arsenal basin.

The Ourcq canal opens into the La Villette basin with very costly works.

 

Fall of the Empire.

The restored monarchy, without totally canceling Napoleon’s project, decided to concede completion and operation of it to a private company called "Compagnie des Canaux de Paris."
 

Completion of Saint Martin canal and of the Arsenal basin after 23 years of work, making it possible to supply 60% of the capital’s water requirements and develop river navigation traffic at the rate of industrialization of the suburbs.
 

Under Napoleon III, Haussmann called upon the engineer Belgrand to cover the downstream part of the Saint Martin canal (today the Boulevard Richard Lenoir).  The long period of non-use that resulted from this severely tested the interests of the Compagnie des Canaux de Paris.

The great lack of motivation on the part of the concessionary, and an affair involving water sold for private interests rather than for the capital’s needs, incited the city to buy back the whole river network consisting of the Ourcq, Saint Martin and Saint Denis canals.

Works undertaken to reconstruct and deepen the Villette basin and broaden the St Martin canal.

The St Martin canal was covered by extension of the Richard Lenoir vault up to the Temple lock.

The "H.P.L.M.," a major inland water navigation company, set up its shops in the Arsenal basin.

The H.P.L.M. buildings were sold to the "Sani-Central" company, which kept its sanitary ceramic objects in depot there, giving the arsenal the nickname of "bidet port.”

 

The city of Paris and the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry decided to join together to endow the capital with a true yachting port, entrusting the management to the Association pour le Port de Plaisance de Paris Arsenal.

 

The city of Paris entrusts management of the Arsenal port at the Bastille to the company Fayolle Marine, and asks it to open a new yachting space:  Halte Nautique de La Villette, on July 1 of the same year.

Fayolle Marine now offers a total of 194 berths for boats from 6 to 25 meters long, and all the indispensable port services.