or the Channel French La Manche ("The Sleeve")
Strait between southern England and northern France.
It connects the Atlantic Ocean with the North Sea through the Strait of Dover . The French name, La Manche ("The Sleeve"), is a reference to its shape, which gradually narrows from about 112 mi (180 km) in the west to only 21 mi (34 km) in the east, between Dover , Eng., and Calais , France. Historically both a route for and a barrier to invaders of Britain, it developed into one of the world's busiest sea routes for oil tankers and ore carriers. The Channel Tunnel , completed in 1994, provides a land route between Paris and London.