When you walk rue Montorgueil, in Paris, you can be intrigued by the name of this passage above this imposing green door: “Passage of the Queen of Hungary”. It is a saleswoman from Les Halles who gave her name to the passage of the Queen of Hungary, in the 1st district of Paris. The Queen of Hungary was not a saleswoman at Les Halles, the relationship resides in the resemblance of the two women, physically and in character, at least according to the queen at the time, Marie-Antoinette. Sent to defend the grievances with the king, Marie Bêcheur, the saleswoman, thus meets the wife of Louis XVI who finds her strong similarities with her own mother, the Queen of Hungary. She grants him many complaints. The two women become intimate. And the nickname Queen of Hungary sticks to Marie Bêcheur’s skin in the neighborhood. This link with the queen will cost him dearly since at the time of the Revolution, she will be accused of sympathy for the monarchy and will be beheaded.
