The formation of the islands
Originally, the Channel Islands didn't exist. Europe was a vast, icy continent until a warming of the earth 6,000 to 7,000 years B.C. gradually caused sea levels to rise by around a hundred meters. The work of the waves can still be seen today on the coasts of the English Channel: here, the sea nibbles away at the seashore year after year, causing entire cliffs to collapse; there, it swallows up the dunes. When the tide comes in during a storm, it spreads out over great distances, rises up rivers and invades the lower reaches of coastal towns. Elsewhere, it piles up and moves cubic meters of sand, kneading alluvial deposits and creating wooded areas. On a geological scale, islands are the result of all these transformations. One way or another, granite rocks covered with alluvial deposits found themselves separated from the mainland, at the heart of an immense bay. Old maps and accounts from Roman times and the Middle Ages suggest that Jersey remained linked to Cotentin for a long time.
At the same time, Guernsey and Sark formed a single island. It is still claimed that, during exceptionally low tides in 1735 and 1812, the remains of villages covered by water were clearly visible. There's also the legend of sunken forests, told throughout the bay. In any case, the fate of the islands is inseparable from that of the surrounding region: both man and sea have shaped their landscape for millennia.
A strategic position
"The Isle of Jersey and the Normandy coast are so close that they look into each other's eyes," wrote Barbey d'Aurevilly, "from the top of Mont Orgueil, at Gorey, you can see the two spires of Coutances cathedral, and from Carteret you can see, in the sunlight, the greenhouses of Jersey", wrote a Norman chronicler. The Channel Islands, whose name dates back to the 11th century, when the Duke of Normandy became King of England, are at the heart of the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, between the Breton Armorican massif, the Norman Cotentin and the English shore. Alderneyalderney, the most northerly, is the only island truly in the English Channel. It is closest to the English coast (92 km) and to France (17 km). These two countries, governed by the same tidal system, have each claimed ownership of these islands in their own time. Indeed, they benefit from an attractive geographical position for both trade and navigation. They are so close to each other that, on a clear day, you can see the coasts - or, at night, the lighthouses - of the neighboring islands. The rectangular Jersey is the largest. The plateau slopes to the south, where the island's prettiest beaches can be found. Guernsey' s triangular surface area is the size of Paris itself. Here, as in Hermthe plateau slopes to the north and the cliffs to the south. Sark has a plateau bordered by cliffs all along its coastline, while Alderney, to the northeast, is much lower and wilder, exposed to the wind and weather. The discreet islets of Écréhous and Minquierstwo small archipelagos of islands and rocks in the Channel Sea, some ten kilometers northeast of Jersey and just under 15 km from the French coast of Cotentin, are difficult to reach at high tide. A few "cabanes" (huts) remain, clinging to each other on the cliffside. These former smugglers' haunts now serve as shelters for fishermen in search of kelp.
