Les voies de communication en Aquitaine

For millenniums, traffic and transportation in Aquitaine were carried out on roads that were natural and undeveloped (except for the Lot under Colbert), or simply traced through the countryside. The building of a road in the Eastern Landes under Napoléon I to dispatch troops in Spain marked a turning point. In a couple of decades, waterways developed, and projects to link multiple river basins blossomed – projects that would seem impossible nowadays. Never Aquitaine’s waterways were as frequented as in the second half of the 19th century. But soon a railway network was built and its meshes were progressively denser – the last construction was the Somport line in 1929, a network that ruins internal navigation.

A century and a half after the opening of the first railway line, only a few of the oldest roads were used by convoys, and most waterways were abandoned despite a certain renewal through tourism. The railway foundation and the abandoned locks are the archaeological testimonies of this equipment fever because cars have dealt them a definitive blow.