An essential means of communication when roads and bridges were rare, if not non-existent, navigation on the Lot had its golden age in the 17th and 18th centuries. Boats and barrels, made on the spot, allowed the trade of wine, flour and local handicrafts: sugar cauldrons, carpentry nails, paper bales, building stones, etc... to supply the great port of Bordeaux and the sugar islands. On the way back, spices, salt, silk and dried fish went up the river. Successive wars, the decline of Bordeaux, but also the advent of the railways in 1869 (Capdenac/Cahors/Agen line) condemned merchant transport. The Lot was declassified as a navigable river in 1926. In recent years, the renovation of the locks has enabled houseboats and barges to reclaim this waterway.
