What’s stopping you from taking a language study trip for teens in England ? The English Channel! And it’s been a long time since humanity learned to tame it and cross it… We’re taking a closer look at one of the Old Continent’s most famous seas, right now, brought to you by LEC.
The English Channel, an epicontinental sea
The English Channel is classified as an epicontinental sea: it is a part of the ocean that covers a section of the continental shelf. The English Channel is a shallow body of water located in northwestern Europe, between France and Great Britain.
The English Channel
The one we’ll be sure to call the English Channel during a teen language study trip to England has coastal areas occupied by sandbars and small mudflats. Fishing is not a major industry there, since most ports engage in deep-sea fishing —this is the case for:
- Boulogne
- Fécamp
- Dieppe
- Cherbourg
- Southampton
The latter is one of the two major seaports on the coast, alongside Le Havre.
A crossing via the Channel Tunnel, by ferry…
As you’ll see during your next language study trip to England for teens, the English Channel has a rail tunnel at its northern end: the Channel Tunnel, which crosses the Strait of Dover. Ferry connections are also very common, linking Dover to Calais, Newhaven to Dieppe, and Portsmouth to Ouistreham.
… or by swimming!
But the English Channel is also—for the most daring, but also and above all for the best-trained—a body of water that can be crossed… by swimming! The first man to achieve this feat was an Englishman named Matthew Webb: on August 24, 1875, he completed his crossing after spending 21 hours and 45 minutes in the water. In 1926, the first woman to achieve this feat shattered Matthew Webb’s record: the American Gertrude Ederle swam from Cap Gris-Nez to Kingsdown in 14 hours and 39 minutes.