In the Loing valley, within the Puisaye region of central France, a series of seven stone locks, built starting in 1887, have become obsolete after a new channel was excavated. Designed by engineer Hugues Cosnier, these locks were originally intended to connect the Loire and Seine rivers, allowing boats to navigate a 24-meter elevation change. The system included six main locks, with a seventh added later. For over two and a half centuries, they supported commercial navigation, but by 1887, they were abandoned due to high water usage and the need for modernization to handle larger barges. The wooden doors used in the locks were removed shortly after, leaving only the stone structures standing as silent remnants of the past. France has experienced a significant decline in its navigable waterways over the past century. Between 1926 and 1957, over 5,000 kilometers of canals were decommissioned from commercial use. This decline was largely driven by the rise of railways and road transport, which proved more efficient and economically viable than canal systems. The Berry canal, which included the locks in question, was officially declassified by a government decree on January 3, 1955, signed by François Mitterrand, then Minister of the Interior and a descendant of a lock keeper. This decision led to the administrative abandonment of the canal, with various sections handed over to local communes. Some parts of the canal were maintained as waterways, while others were left to nature or even built over. The Nivernais canal is one example of this transformation. At the former Cravant lock site, the structure has been filled with earth and vegetation, with only the tops of the metal lock gates still visible. Upstream, a long-abandoned wooden barge is partially submerged, and the nearby lock house is now open to the wind, its garden overtaken by tall grasses. Similar scenes can be found across the region, where some locks still have their operating mechanisms preserved, albeit rusted, while others are overrun by invasive plants like reeds and jussie. These once-thriving waterways now stand as echoes of a bygone era. The lock houses that once housed workers and families have largely fallen into disuse as the need for them disappeared with the decline of canal traffic. While some have been repurposed for new uses, the majority remain vacant. Navigable Waterways of France has launched efforts to restore about 70 lock houses along the Burgundy canal, but these projects are relatively small compared to the vast network of decommissioned canals. Most of these stone locks will likely never see commercial traffic again. Their decline is not due to the strength of the masonry, but rather the disappearance of the traffic that once made them essential. With the last professional boatmen long gone, these historic structures now stand as silent witnesses to a changing transportation landscape.