In 1776, holding firm in his conviction that "[a King] must always consult public opinion; it is never wrong" and frankly tired by the decadent court of Versailles, King Louis XVI embarked upon a public tour of France.

Tour De FranceThroughout his reign he had chosen to confine his movements to travelling between Paris and Versailles. Because he had failed to establish a direct connection with the people and also lacked an innate sense of direction his desire to be popular was unfulfilled. Consequently, the tour was broadly welcomed as a positive development by his advisors who secretly hoped that a breath of fresh air might blow away his notorious indecisiveness.

Finance Ministers Turgot and Malesherbes were in conflict with the nobility and also blocked by the parlements who insisted that the King did not have the legal right to levy new taxes. They hoped that a new connection with the French people might enable them to win the power struggle by outmanoerving their rivals in the First and Second Estates. Which in their view was the gateway to the restoration of financial security. Although at a strategic level, the tour was a miserable failure, it did induce a character change. He developed a steely new resolve that made possible the Flight of the Bourbons.