A business trip usually has tight deadlines and requires organization.Those who need to go to England in their own cars but do not want to take a plane can cross the English Channel via the Eurotunnel. It takes only a little more than half an hour to arrive in the UK, in Folkestone.
The Eurotunnel is the fastest way for those who want to reach the UK from France by car, crossing the legendary English Channel. According to the authoritative American Society of Civil Engineers, the Eurotunnel is considered one of the wonders of the modern world along with the Golden Gate in the U.S. city of San Francisco, the CN Tower in Canada’s Toronto, the Itaipú Dam between Brazil and Paraguay, the Panama Canal, and the Empire State Building in New York City.
The Eurotunnel represents a grandiose engineering feat that has made it possible to shorten the already minimal distances between the English and French coasts, separated only by the English Channel, that arm of the sea to which intense pages of English as well as French history are linked.
Using the Eurotunnel is the best solution especially for those who travel to England for work and at the same time need their own car to get around more freely, moving easily between, for example, the City of London and Manchester.
The birth of the Eurotunnel in the English Channel.
The English Channel is that 560-kilometer-long arm of the sea that separates, in its shortest stretch, the coasts of France and Great Britain. Many historical events took place in this stretch of sea, including attempted Norman invasions in 1066 and battles, such as those between the English fleet and the Spanish Invincible Armada in 1588. Then we cannot forget the famous Normandy landings that led to the Allied troops leaving Britain and crossing the English Channel, beginning the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation. The English Channel has been a real bulwark for England in the past for centuries: William Shakespeare himself in his Richard II speaks of the channel as a “precious gem that serves as a wall or moat.”
Today the Mnaica Canal no longer represents a divisive element, but rather sought to exploit it to bring continental Europe closer to Great Britain: this is why the of the Eurotunnel, an indispensable way to cross the canal by car and without taking a plane, fast and practical especially for those who need to undertake a business trip with total independence and freedom of movement.
The Eurotunnel is a full 50.45 km long, and more than half of the route runs below sea level, at about 40 m. of depth. It took more than 4,000 workers and 7 years of relentless work to complete this extraordinary piece of engineering: boring machine is the name given to the drills that dug large 75-meter shafts, drilling 36,000 tons of rock per day, so at a truly monstrous speed. Eurotunenel is the result of very careful studies of the geology of the area and is now a modern, safe facility with fire doors and very high-efficiency ventilation and cooling systems.
The Eurotunnel was inaugurated in May 1994 by French President Mitterand and Queen Elizabeth II, who had reached Calais directly from Waterloo.
The Channel Tunnel connects precisely Folkestone, a seaside village a stone’s throw from Dover, in the heart of Kent and Coquelles, near the beautiful town of Calais: each of the two states manages the maintenance and safety of that part of the tunnel that falls within its territory, complete with a blue line marked in the Eurotunnel indicating precisely the border between the two countries.
How to cross the English Channel by car
When people talk about driving across the English Channel, they might think of the Eurotunnel as a kind of highway tunnel built on the seabed. In fact, the Eurotunnel is for all intents and purposes a rail line and there is only one lane where wheeled passage is allowed exclusively for service or rescue vehicles. Those who are traveling for business or pleasure need do no more than board their cars, as if on board a ferry, inside the Eurotunnel Shuttle: the difference with the ferry service is that in this case passengers do not leave their cars but remain on board them, with the engine obviously turned off. The Eurotunnel Shuttle (where trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and buses are also allowed) is not a dark and claustrophobic environment, being very bright, equipped with air conditioning, toilets, and even wi-fi service.
The journey in the Eurotunnel Shuttle is very short, lasting just 35 minutes and traveling at an impressive 160 km/h.
It must be remembered that, following Brexit and Britain’s exit from the Euro Zone in October 2021, a passport is also required, in addition to an ID card, to enter the U.K. That is why it is advisable to go to the boarding gate at least half an hour beforehand, in order to safely perform the proper check-in.
The cost of a ticket to drive across the English Channel via the Eurotunnele starts at €100, including round-trip travel within a maximum of 5 days.
The price rises to €127 if you want to include a return with no time limit (cost rising to at least €174 if you want to include a possible refund as well).
The ticket to use the Eurotunnel goes up a lot for those who arrive at the Coquelles embarkation point and wish to board immediately at the first available Shuttle, rising to as much as €251 with a return within 5 days and to €323 v for a free return with no time constraint.Animals get in free, except cats, ferrets and dogs, for which a €25 surcharge is required.
Those who travel well in advance to Calais to embark on their business trip to Britain may entertain themselves in the meantime in Calais, the most populous city in northern France. It is worth a visit to this beautiful city, which has its main landmark in the City Hall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a spectacular example of Flemish art, flanked by a Renaissance-style white stone and brick bell tower.
The Town Hall of Calais dominates the sculptural group of the Bourgeois of Calais below, a work by Rodin created to commemorate the sacrifice of a group of townspeople who, in 1346, offered their lives to save the town from siege by Edward III of England.
A stroll in Calais takes travelers, waiting to cross the English Channel, strolling along the Promenade, which skirts the city’s vast beach, to the Lighthouse, built in 1848, in the heart of the quaint seaside district of Courgain Maritime.
Finally, not to be missed is a visit to the Citadel of Calais, built on the remains of uan 13th fortress: of the manor ordered by Henry I of Orleans there remain open parts of the walls, ramparts and defensive towers.
