Hélène de Portes

Hélène de Portes (24 February 1902-28 June 1940) was a countess of France. She is remembered for the influence she exerted on her partner, Paul Reynaud, premier of France under the Third Republic at the time of its defeat in June 1940 at the hands of Nazi Germany. A Fascist sympathizer, she was described as "a middle aged woman, with a shrill voice, and a clamorous, demanding manner, who chatted like a magpie and lost her temper with ease."Charles de Gaulle called her "a turkey", while Winston Churchill nicknamed her "the parrot".

The Countess de Portes was born Hélène Marie Jeanne Rebuffel in 1902 in Marseille, the daughter of , an engineer and director of Société des Grands Travaux de Marseille from 1917 to 1939. She was introduced to Paul Reynaud in the early 1920s by Andre Tardieu, a friend of her father's, much to his displeasure, and he actively sought other suitors. She eventually married the Italian Count Henri de Portes, but they separated after she had borne him two children: a son, Hervé, in 1930, and a daughter, Anne Juliette Caroline, in 1932. She became Paul Reynaud's mistress in 1938, after he and his wife separated.

As Reynaud rose through the upper ranks of his party, the Democratic Republican Alliance, de Portes' status moved upwards with him. She was described by insiders as la porte à côté, the side door through which interested persons could gain access to the state of mind of the French government.

As the power of Nazi Germany grew, Reynaud was identified by many French voters and parliamentary deputies as a strong voice of resistance. He became Minister of Finance in 1938 and on 21 March 1940, after the German occupation of Poland, became Prime Minister of France. As such, he led a government whose status depended on its alliance with the United Kingdom. However, while the French alliance with Britain was strategic policy from the standpoint of the fight against Hitler, the alliance was obnoxious to the Countess, who has been described as "so violently anti-British that Hitler had once sent an emissary to woo her favours."

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