Above: Rachel and Le Huppé on the day of their departure for Bucharest, April 11, 1928.
Source: The Sketch , April 18, 1928, p. 103 (detail), via reader.exacteditions.com.
Above: Strasbourg: Le Pont de Kehl about 1930 (detail). This is the bridge over the Rhine River between Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany, that Rachel crossed on April 22, 1928. Note the "Gallic rooster" atop the arch, a symbol of France since the Middle Ages.
Source: Structurae: International Database and Gallery of Structures. Photo credit: C.A.P. (Compagnie (Alsacienne) des Arts Photomécaniques, Strasbourg & Paris) postcard no. 350.
8. Bucharest, 1928 (continued)
Paris to Strasbourg (Map 1-2)
It took Rachel ten stopovers to cover the nearly 500 kilometers from Paris to Strasbourg. She arrived at 2:30 p.m. on April 21. Strasbourg is the capital of the historic region of Alsace which has long been disputed territory between France and Germany. Germany annexed the region after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Forty-seven years later it was reclaimed by France at the end of World War I. In 1940 Germany would annex Alsace again, as well as occupying more than half of France.
However in 1928 French and German citizens of Alsace were apparently united in their attitude toward Rachel. On April 13 the Strassburger Neue Zeitung noted that "Rachel Dorange, who left Paris on her horse L’Huppé to undertake the Paris-Bucharest ride, will also pass through Strasbourg on her way... We extend our welcome to this charming Amazon today."
If Rachel was aware of the political and other tensions bubbling in the war-torn communities that she passed through, she made no mention of them to reporters. On the other hand she was acutely conscious of her own importance as a celebrity and of the attention that she felt was her due.
At about 6 p.m. on April 17, four days before reaching Strasbourg, she had arrived in the city of Nancy and was initially disappointed at her reception there, or rather the lack of it. Pouting slightly, she complained to the reporters who met her:
"The people of Nancy are cold.... In Châlons-sur-Marne, Ligny, Void, and Toul, I received a charming welcome...."
The reporters explained that people hadn't expected her because Nancy was left off Rachel's published itinerary. But everyone was familiar with Rachel's face from newspapers, magazines and newsreels and soon passersby began to recognize her and stop to greet her in the street. Rachel's pout was replaced with a smile.
By the next day, April 18, word of her arrival had spread through town and she was applauded by the large crowd that gathered to see her off. Two dignitaries were on hand as well: General Parisse of the 20th Cavalry Corps (who saluted her) and Eugene Rousselot, president of Nancy's Festival Committee.
At noon, as she passed through Dombasie-sur-Meuthe, she was cheered by factory workers who were on their lunch break. When she stopped for her own lunch at Luneville she was toasted by officers of the 31st Dragoons.
Strasbourg to Stuttgart (Map 2-3)
On the morning of April 22 Rachel crossed the Rhine River from Strasbourg and set foot on German soil in the nearby town of Kehl. According to the Neue Mannheimer Zeitung: "Thanks to the cooperation of the relevant authorities, the customs, passport, and veterinary formalities were quickly completed, and the ride continued, taking the horsewoman via Pforzheim to Stuttgart. She was accompanied to the border of the occupied territory by three ladies from Strasbourg society and several French officers."
The "occupied territory" was the strip of Germany between the Rhine and the borders of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands that was occupied by French, British, American and Belgian troops between 1918 and 1930. The southern boundary of the French occupation zone met the west bank of the Rhine at a point just south of Karlsruhe, about 80 kilometers northeast of Strasbourg.
Presumably Rachel and her escort rode up the east bank of the Rhine almost as far as Karlsruhe at which point Rachel turned east to Pforzheim and Stuttgart.
Unfortunately at this point we run into one of the many gaps in the newspaper coverage of Rachel's journey, or at least coverage that survives in online databases.