Big Brother and Marie Antoinette

[mydogsandme]

Last night in the quiz Derek said that Marie Antoinette said let them eat bread and that cake was the wrong answer. I thought that she was told that the people had no bread and she answered let them eat cake. Am I wrong?

[zipadeedodah]

I saw that too, and immediately thought 'let them eat cake'. The only reason I thought that was from the Queen song Killer Queen:

"'Let them eat cake' she says
Just like Marie Antoinette."

Was surprised to hear them say it was let them eat bread!

[jenstar]

It's a myth that she said either. An apocryphal story, a tall tale, a made-up thing, a porkie.

[jno]

Yes, probably not true at all; but the story says cake.

[dafyd]

She said "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" (cos she was French), which means "Let them eat brioche" (a sweet French bread, traditionally quite a luxary). "Cake" fits best in translation, as it gets the point across without having to give a lengthy explanation of what brioche is.

This was, indeed, because Paris had run out of bread. I think Derek (whoever he may be - I neither know nor care) was trying to be too clever for his own good, and getting all mixed up in the process.