Many residents of the southern French city of Toulon who were children in the 1970s have personal anecdotes about the Port-Marchand swimming pool's construction. One recalled living with their family in the Sainte-Elisabeth residence, a tower overlooking the railway station, from which they could perfectly follow the progress of the works. Another, who lived with his parents at La Corvette, an apartment block facing the site, remembered treasure hunts and cardboard sliding competitions organized in the enormous hole of the construction site. Frédéric Auban, for his part, had the privilege of swimming the 100-meter breaststroke with his club on inauguration day. "There were international swimmers and members of the French national swimming team," recalled the lifeguard, now close to retirement. "Champions Michel Rousseau and Alain Mosconi were there. The place was beautiful and very well designed, with plenty of space, large changing rooms and quality materials…"

As journalist Jean-Paul Jacob noted in an article devoted to the opening of the facility in the regional daily Var-Matin on Sunday, May 28, 1972, the previous day in Toulon had been marked by a triple inauguration.

But the openings of the new sports medicine and medical-social centers neither had the importance nor the resonance of the opening ceremony reserved for the remarkable aquatic complex. Presided over by the prefect of the Var region, Louis Lalanne, and Toulon's mayor, Maurice Arreckx, the pool's inauguration was attended by a crowd of public figures and two days of festivities featuring competitions, water polo matches and aquatic ballets.

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