Q 01/05

Coco Chanel was born in 1883 in a charity hospital in which French town?

A) Saumur

B) Vichy

C) Moulins

D) Brive-la-Gaillarde

Answer · why

A) Saumur

Her mother was a laundrywoman and her father an itinerant street vendor who peddled work clothes.

Q 02/05

How was Chanel's surname entered on her birth certificate?

A) Channel

B) Chanelle

C) Chasnel

D) Chesnel

Answer · why

C) Chasnel

She never corrected it, since doing so would have revealed she was born in a poorhouse hospice; she went to her grave as Gabrielle Chasnel.

Q 03/05

After her mother died, Chanel was sent to the orphanage at which convent, where she learned to sew?

A) Lourdes

B) Aubazine

C) Solesmes

D) Cluny

Answer · why

B) Aubazine

She was 11; her father sent her brothers to work as farm labourers. Aubazine later inspired the staircase at her villa La Pausa.

Q 04/05

How old was Chanel's mother Jeanne when she died?

A) 32

B) 26

C) 40

D) 45

Answer · why

A) 32

Chanel later told glamorous, untrue versions in which her father sailed for America and she was raised by aunts.

Q 05/05

Where did Chanel make her stage debut as a poseuse, an entertainer between the star turns?

A) A music hall in Paris

B) A casino in Deauville

C) A spa theatre in Vichy

D) A cafe-concert in Moulins

Answer · why

D) A cafe-concert in Moulins

La Rotonde was frequented by cavalry officers; performers earned only what the passed plate collected.