Bay popular with the French close to port (5)
I believe the answer is:
inlet
'bay' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'popular with the french close to port' is the wordplay.
'popular' becomes 'in'.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'the french' becomes 'le' (**).
'close to' suggests the final letters (the close/ending of).
The last letter of 'port' is 't'.
'in'+'le'+'t'='INLET'
(Other definitions for inlet that I've seen before include "Narrow arm of water" , "Bay, cove" , "Small arm of the sea" , "Small area of sea" , "Arm off a larger body of water between headlands" .)