"Sire, do not talk to me of small projects, " said the Great Cham of baroque architecture, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, to Louis XIV after the Sun King lured him to Paris.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

The eighteenth century was the French century: Rousseau, Voltaire, Versailles and the court of the Sun King Louis the Fourteenth, Buffon and the Jardin des Plantes, Paris buzzing with the discourse of the enlightenment and the new supremacy of scientific method.

BBC: Part Three - France and the World

The emphasis on dance in French opera started with Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), himself a dancer, who became the court composer to France's music-loving "Sun King, " Louis XIV.

NPR: Opera Beyond Words: Rameau's Radiant Dances