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The next few months were devoted to preparing for the Big Tour. Francois, all this time, was actively involved in political affairs, embodying a new policy of religious tolerance and absolutism of royal power. The chancellor instructed him to negotiate with both Catholics and Protestants, and almost always Francois managed to achieve success to one degree or another. He helped to develop financial reform and create a legislative framework for the new policy of the king.

At the end of January, the royal court left Paris and moved towards Fontainebleau. Here the cortege stopped for a month, waiting for the arrival of all those who wished to participate in the Grand Tour. There were many of them, and when the court left Fontainebleau in mid-March and headed southwest, there were more than four thousand people in the cortege: the royal family, courtiers, maids of honor, five companies of armed nobles, a regiment of guards, musicians, doctors, cooks, butlers , bedding, jesters, dwarfs. Tra