He won the Prix de Rome in 1846, with his design for a natural history museum, and lived at the Villa Medici from 1847 to 1851.

Maxime Du Camp, who had recently returned from a trip to the Middle East, encouraged his efforts and offered professional advice.

His individual career was launched in 1856, when he was one of several architects chosen by Prince Napoléon-Jérôme to design a palace in Neo-Grecian style that would come to be known as the Maison Pompéienne.

After that, he indulged his interest in photography by taking an extended trip throughout France, Italy, Greece, North Africa, Scandinavia and Russia, making a photographic record of vernacular structures, as well as monuments.

He had three sons; Charles [fr] (1858-1934), an art historian, Paul (1861-1945), an architect, and Robert (1873-1929), a military engineer, with the rank of General, who participated in constructing the Maginot Line.