_Before reaching Bezannes village, leave on the right, two roads which skirt a large estate enclosed with railings, go straight on to the ruined railway-station of Bezannes, then turn to the right._ =Bezannes= (_See Itinerary, p. 122._) _Cross the first group of half-ruined houses, then, on reaching a second group, which forms the main part of the village, turn to the left into the first street encountered, where the_ partially destroyed church _stands_. The round-vaulted apse, tower, nave and aisles all belong to the Romanesque period. The Gothic doorway is 13th, and the spire of the belfry 15th century. The square tower greatly resembles the old belfry on the doorway of St. Remi Church in Rheims, and, like the latter, dates apparently from the middle of the 11th century. The Gothic doorway of the west front is set up against a Romanesque wall. The gable has been rebuilt in modern times. Vestiges of an ancient portal are to be found on each side of the doorway. The key-stones of the arch above the tympanum, like those of the upper arching, are numbered in Roman figures, a peculiarity rarely to be found. Facing the doorway of the church, on the left of the great entrance-door to a court, is a niche containing a 16th century stone =statue= representing a bishop wearing a chasuble. In the court of the same house, over the door of the main structure, on the right, in an arched Renaissance niche, hollowed out and ornamented with marble incrustations, is the =statue= of a canon with folded hands kneeling at the foot of a crucifixion. A shell-splinter took off the head of the bishop's statue, but the other group is intact. Those interested in things pre-historic, may visit the =Pistat Collection= at Bezannes, which contains a great number of interesting specimens belonging to the stone and neolithic ages, and to the Gallic and Roman periods of the region. Of the old castles of Bezannes, nothing of interest remains. On September 11, 1914, during the Battle of the Marne, the German Staff took up their quarters in the house of M. Poullot. On the 12th, the battle attained the vicinity of the village. _Skirt the church, and at the cross-roads at the end of the village, keep straight on, past the cemetery on the right._ [Illustration: CHURCH OF BEZANNES IN 1914] _The road climbs a small hill lined with trenches, then descends to the village of_ =Les Mesneux=. _At the entrance to this village (which is of no particular interest) turn to the right, and at the fork about fifty yards farther on, to the left, leaving the unmetalled road on the right._