It takes 20 minutes to fly over, at its narrowest it is only 34km wide and on a clear day you can see the steep chalky cliffs of Kent across the Dover Strait from France.
The narrow English Channel has been instrumental in shaping British culture, distancing and protecting the British Isles from the rest of continental Europe.
However France and Britain have not always been separated; 200,000 years ago you could have walked across a land-bridge joining the two countries.
The present Channel is the result of a series of catastrophic floods around 200,000 years ago.
Huge lakes fed by the great rivers of Northern Europe burst their banks releasing between one million and 200,000 gallons of water per second.
These cataclysmic floods cut deep valleys through the land bridge connecting Britain and Europe, eventually widening into the English Channel.
The geological legacy of the Channel remains today - when you look from one side to another you can see the same rocks and cliffs, reminding us that both sides were once connected.
The famous "White Cliffs of Dover", which are a famous and nostalgic symbol of Britain and homecoming, are actually visible on both sides of the Channel.
One of the most popular war-time hits of WWII was Vera Lynn's "(There'll be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover", a powerful reminder of the significance of the cliffs in the British psyche.