Bazenville

Bazenville is located some 6 km east by north-east of Bayeux and 4 km south by south-east of Arromanches-les-Bains. Access to the commune is by the D87 road from Ryes in the north-west which passes through the commune south of the village and continues south-east to Villiers-le-Sec. The D112 from Sommervieu to Crépon forms the north-western border of the commune. Apart from the village there is the hamlet of Les Noyaux. There is a British Military Cemetery in the west of the commune on the D87. The commune is entirely farmland.^[5][6]

Bazonille is mentioned as Basonni villa in 875.

Bazenville appears as Bazanville on the 1750 Cassini Map^[7] and as Bazan ville on the 1790 version.^[8]

Bazenville was liberated on the same day as the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944. An interim Canadian aerodrome (referred to as Bazenville Airfield, Advanced Landing Ground B-2 Bazenville, or B-2 Crépon) was built commencing the following night near the commune in a large part of the triangle formed by the Bazenville, Crépon, and Villiers-le-Sec villages.^[9]

It was on this aerodrome that the French ace Pierre Clostermann flew, on 11 June 1944, for the first time in France after his entry into the war in 1942: "All my life I will remember the people of Bazenville the first French to whom I spoke".^[10]

List of Successive Mayors^[11]

• A Commemorative plaque remembering the site of the airfield where Pierre Clostermann arrived on 11 June 1944.

The commune has many buildings and sites that are registered as historical monuments:

• A Farmhouse at Rue des Alliés (1759)^[14]
• A Tradesman's house at Rue des Cordiers (19th century)^[15]
• The Bazenville Farmhouse at Rue de l'Eglise (17th century)^[16]
• A House at Rue de l'Eglise (18th century)^[17]
• A Notable's House at Rue de l'Eglise (18th century)^[18]
• The Chateau of Bazenville at Rue de la Grotte (17th century)^[19]
• The Manor of Tournebu at Rue des Noyaux (17th century)^[20]
• A Worker's House at Route de Villiers-le-Sec (19th century)^[21]
• The Chateau de la Croix at Route de Villiers-le-Sec (1727)^[22]
• The British Cemetery of Ryes (20th century).^[23] The cemetery contains 979 graves: 630 British, 21 Canadians, one Australian, one Pole, and 326 Germans.
• The War Memorial (1929)^[24]
• The Grotto of Lourdes (1947)^[25]
• Bazenville Village (Ancient times)^[26]
• Houses (17th-19th century)^[27]

The commune has several religious buildings and sites that are registered as historical monuments:

• A Presbytery at Rue de l'Eglise (19th century)^[28]
• The Parish Church of Saint-Martin at le Bourg (13th century)^[29][30] The Church contains a large number of objects which are registered as historical objects.^[29][30]

• 
  The British Military Cemetery in Bazenville
• 
  The Chateau of Bazenville
• 
  The Grotto of Lourdes
• 
  The Church of Saint Martin
• 
  The Chateau de la Croix