Above: Rachel in her riding outfit singing the Pot-au-Feu song at the "Pot-au-Feu des Vieux" charity event (detail). The event was held in Place de la République on November 6 and 7, 1935, from noon to two o'clock.
Source: L'Est Républicain, November 8, 1935, p. 1. Photo credit: France Presse. National Library of France (via Gallica).
Above: Rachel at the Concours Hippique (horse show) held at the Grand Palais on March 21-22, 1936. Rachel is mounted on Satan.
Source: La Liberté "Au Concours Hippique," March 26, 1936, p. 1. National Library of France (via RetroNews).
Above: Same photo (detail).
15. 1935 to 1937
Rachel almost disappears from the newspapers after returning from her attempted Rome trip. We have an article from November 1935, another from March, 1936 and then nothing until February, 1938, when she sets off on fund-raising journey to Nice, this time on foot rather than on horseback.
In November, 1935 Rachel took part in another charity event (left), the Pot-au-Feu des Vieux ("Old People's Pot-au-Feu"), the pot-au-feu being a traditional kind of stew. The purpose of the charity was to raise funds to provide food and other comforts to impoverished elderly people.
The charity was founded by Eugénie Duchoiselle (1879-1966), initially to serve the elderly poor in her home district of Montmartre. The charity operated through the 1930s and during the German occupation, distributing food packages, clothing and even coal through local relief centers.
Madame Duchoiselle also opened a dispensary and a free market and hosted New Years Parties for the poor, earning her the nickname "Madame Pot-au-Feu." She also organized various fund-raising events, such as galas, dances and tea concerts.
The charity and its fund-raising activities were supported by many celebrities who were well known at the time, including Josephine Baker who was the patron.
Rachel was one of the celebrities recruited by Madame Duchoiselle for the November event. The participants were required to sing the Pot-au-Feu Song (Chanson du Pot-au-Feu) from Jacques Offenbach's comic opera "Robinson Crusoe" and to sell printed copies to the audience. Somewhat ironically, the song is sung in the opera by the chief of a tribe of cannibals.
In 1936 Rachel took part in the annual horse show (Concours Hippique) which was held on the weekend of March 21-22 at the Grand Palais, an enormous exhibition hall in the Champs Elysées that was built for the 1900 Paris World Fair.
The Concours Hippique was a major social occasion as well as a sporting event. It included a show jumping competition for cavalry officers that attracted 109 entrants. Rachel's role was to put a horse named Satan through its paces in front of the saddle horse judges.
But other than the "Pot-au-Feu" song and the Concours Hippique, what was Rachel doing in 1936 and 1937?
She told Roger Grison that "when her passion for horses returned in 1937" she taught horsemanship at the Country-Club de Samois. (Le Petit Parisien)
She told Paule Corday "I am an equestrian of the haute-ecole. I had an equestrian school where I taught, where I took care of the horses and shoveled manure." (La Presse)
The Hostellerie du Country Club de Samois was built in 1919 and is still in business in Samois-sur-Seine, 69 kilometers southeast of Paris. Meanwhile the Écuries de Samois (Stables of Samois) web site offers riding lessons, boarding stalls and other services. But there is no clue as to any connection that Rachel may have had with either of these institutions.