The locks at Fonsérannes

The 9 locks at Fon­sérannes are in fact a sin­gle huge lock with eight basins and nine gates. This lock stair­case, unique in its length of 312 metres and its height dif­fer­ence of 21.5 metres, was list­ed as a his­toric mon­u­ment in Octo­ber 1996, before the Canal du Midi itself was list­ed as a UNESCO World Her­itage Site. As its dimen­sions did not allow large car­go barges to pass through, a slip­way was built in 1984. A lit­tle too late, riv­er trans­port of goods was already in decline, and it closed short­ly after it began operating.