The project aims at scrutinizing the content of six substantial German travel accounts dating from 1685 to 1723, the earliest hitherto known, in which profound and reasoned judgements and opinions on French art and architecture have been rendered. These manuscripts and printed documents out of German public collections are partly unpublished and have never been investigated as a whole. The following sources will be treated: Christoph Pitzler (1657-1707): Travel journal (1685-1688), Ferdinand Bonaventure Graf Harrach (1637-1706): Travel journal (1698), Christian Friedrich Gottlieb von dem Knesebeck (before 1680 - after 1727): Journal relating a travel to France, around (1699), Leonhard Christoph Sturm (1669-1719): Architectonische Reise-Anmerkungen (1699, 1719), Lambert Friedrich(1668-1733) and Christian Heinrich Corfey (1670-1652): Reisetagebuch (1698-99), Johann Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753): Letters from his travel to France (1722/23).