[1] Along the adjacent rue de Babylone the Duchess had a two-story town house built to accommodate the Orléans children, their governesses and tutors, which served as Hélène's home from 1876 until her father was again exiled.

[1] However, celebrations in Paris in the spring of 1886 prior to the marriage in Lisbon of Hélène's eldest sister Amélie to Carlos of Braganza-Coburg, Prince Royal of Portugal, evoked such clear expressions of monarchist support for the House of Orléans that on 22 July the French Republic took the precaution of banishing the heads of France's former ruling dynasties, the Orléans and Bonapartes, from the country.

[3] Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale ("Eddy") was the eldest son of the future Edward VII and grandson of then reigning Queen Victoria.

Marriage to a Roman Catholic would have entailed constitutional forfeiture of Eddy's claim to the British throne, pursuant to the Act of Settlement, but Hélène offered to become an Anglican.

[5] Clarence never got over his feelings for Hélène and their relationship is commemorated at his tomb at Windsor Castle by a bead wreath with the single word "HELENE" written upon it.

Although acknowledging his parents' desires for a French alliance in his diary, the future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (a first cousin of Clarence) never pursued their choice, Hélène, as he was already in love with the aforementioned Alix of Hesse and secured their permission to marry her in 1894.

[6] In 1892, while travelling in Egypt with her brother Philippe, Hélène met Ernst Gunther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, who decided that he would marry her, to the fury of his sister, the German Empress Augusta Victoria.

German diplomatic pressure put an end to Ernst Gunther's hopes, which were probably fruitless in any event as Hélène showed no interest in his advances.

During these trips she became known as a big-game hunter, a reputation bolstered by articles she wrote for Harper's Weekly and later full-length travel books which were illustrated with photographs she had taken.

[8] When the Italo-Turkish war broke out, Hélène trained as a nurse and went aboard the hospital ship Memfi, where she cared for wounded soldiers and those suffering from disease.