The tour began in 1783, beginning in France. In Paris,  the Turk lost a match to Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne, the Duc de Bouillon. People wanted the Turk to play a game with François-André Danican Philidor, the best chess player of his time. Philidor won, but it was "his most fatiguing game of chess ever!" The Turk's final game in Paris was against Benjamin Franklin, the United State's ambassador to France. Franklin enjoyed the game with the Turk and kept a copy of Philip Thicknesse's book "The Speaking Figure and the Automaton Chess Player, Exposed and Detected" in his personal library.