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After the installation of the republican government in France, the emigration of the nobility which had begun in 1791, had intensified with the departure of the royal family in 1793 and fall of Brest to the revolutionaries in 1794. Though the first émigrés had been members of the royal family, and those most associated with the absolutist regime, they were soon followed by members of the clergy, merchants, skilled tradesmen and peasants loyal to the king. The king's brother, the Comte d'Artois had been among the first to depart France for the safety of the Kingdom of Sardinia, where he went to live with his wife's family. Soon other prominent families began leaving for neighbouring states, particularly those in the Holy Roman Empire form where they could not only obtain news from France, but in some instances organise counter-revolutionary resistance. Initially most felt that the turbulence would be short-lived and that they would be able to return once the uprisings in Paris had been quelled. As the revolutionary armies grew in strength, some began to make their way to Great Britain where they felt safe from the armies of the republic. Others followed the king to Brest, departing with him to New France, with the largest numbers departing in August of 1793. By 1796, an estimated quarter of a million Frenchmen had left France, in one of the largest migrations of its history.

On 14 June 1793, just two weeks prior to his own departure, King Louis XVI issued an edict opening France's ports to the ships of friendly nations in an effort to ferry those who wished to leave to safety. This was met with reprisals on the part of the governing Committee of Public Safety which feared the émigrés forming armies against the republic. As a result, it sought to punish those who emigrated. Led by the radical Jacobins, the government used emigration as a pretext to not only nationalise the land of the émigrés, but to issue death sentences those who remained. This would lead to two years of terror as the republican government dealt harshly with opposition to its rule, using the guillotine as a means of executing its enemies. As the news of this terror spread, the ports of Brest, Lorient, Toulon, and Bordeaux became clogged with not only French ships, but also with British, Dutch, Spanish ships as well, as throngs of people sought to escape. Sea captains and sailors saw this as an opportunity to earn extra money by extorting what little possessions many had in return for safe passage. Initially many were brought to the Channel Islands and Britain itself. From there ferried on British and French ships to the New World, with the movement being a boon for British shipping. Others joined the flotilla of French Naval ships from Brest to New France that departed on 28 June 1793. The departure of the king only further exacerbated the panic as thousands made their way to the ports, which became prone centres of famine and misery. The despair increased as thousands waited for weeks at the fortress of Belle-Île, as its population swelled from 6,000 to nearly 25,000 during the summer of 1793.

Prior to the departure of the royal family, the shipment of many of their contents New France to new France had begun weeks earlier. Thousands of crates of art, silver, furnishings and tapestries taken from Versailles, the Tuileries, Compiegne, etc along with volumes of the royal library had made their way to the new world. The invaluable collections of the Louvre had been taken away from Paris after the city's capture by the Canadiens and brought to Rennes and later Brest. Many of the invaluable treasures of the French crown had been taken to the French ports for safekeeping in 1793. The decision to fill ships with the contents of the royal chateaux in June 1793 caused some criticism with many of the republicans claiming that it was the Queen's doing. Marie Antoinette was criticised for being more interested salvaging her furnishings and gowns than people. With the departure of the royal family, the already weak royalist forces began to falter, with Bordeaux falling to the Republicans a eight weeks later.

On 19 July 1793 the royal flotilla arrived at Plaissance, Terre-Neuve (Placentia, NFLD) to joyous crowds of well wishers. In Plaissance, King Louis XVI of France and Navarre would become the first European sovereign to set his foot on American soil. Greeted by Governor, the Vicomte de Noailles, it seemed to be the entire populace of the city of eight-thousand had come to see their king and queen. The festivities lasted days with a salute of guns from the fortress and various masses being held in Plaissance. The jubilant atmosphere contrasted with that they had left behind in Brest. The royal family remained at the fort of Plaissance for three weeks before preceding to Québec. The royal ships made their way to the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, and onward to Quebec. As they approached Quebec, crowds of villagers lined the river to watch the spectacle unfurl. On 19 August 1793, the 120-gun Dauphin arrived at the docks of the capital to throngs of well-wishers acclaiming their sovereign. The bells of the churches of the city tolled as the royals were greeted by the Count of Provence, who since May had been acting as viceroy. The royal cortege, consisting of several gilded carriages brought from France accompanied by a horse guard then made its way from the lower city to the upper city and to the Citadel. Among those in the crowd were several British subjects from New England whom wrote about this "display of magnificence" in their memoirs.

The celebration of the arrival of the royal family lasted for days, with a Te Deum was sung in honour of the king at Quebec's cathedral. The king made an effort to attend masses with his family at various points throughout the city as part of a public relations campaign to portray himself as a pious man, and shed off the image of an aloof monarch. The king and his court settled into their new home, the Chateau Saint Louis, which had been served as the Viceregal Palace for a century. The rambling seventeenth century structure had been amplified and suffered various alterations through the years, but was smaller than Versailles or the Tuileries. With the arrival of the king, the Chateau would once again be redesigned as boiserie, artwork and furniture brought from France soon made the palace hold its own among the grandest of Europe. Among the artwork imported were collections of renaissance paintings by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, with his Mona Lisa having been among the paintings of the royal collection at the Louvre to have been transported to America. Though much of the collection remained housed at the citadel of Quebec. It would be there that the coronation regalia including the coronation crown of Louis XV was stored as this became the Garde Meuble du Roi or royal treasury. The royal library and its collection of volumes was also in Quebec having been transferred for safekeeping among them were several medical books housed at the Hotel-Dieu, an example which of how the city was to become a more prominent centre of learning and science. With the abundance of new people, art and fashion, Quebec soon became the Paris of America.