Mixing is an essential process in the deep ocean, as it accounts for the raising of the cold abyssal water masses. The role of internal gravity waves in this process has been questioned because their breaking leads to localized but ubiquitous mixing. The main sources of energy for internal gravity waves are the wind and the interaction of the barotropic tide with the bathymetry. We consider the latter situation in this paper, the internal wave field thus generated being referred to as the internal tide. Joint laboratory and numerical experiments are used to study the internal tide dynamics, in the academic context of a uniformly stratified ocean and when the bathymetry is a two-dimensional continental shelf. We focus on the generation process and on the structure of the internal tide, and briefly address nonlinear effects which occur when the internal tide first reflects from the oceanic bottom.