In the 1860s, under the pen name "Henri Normand", he had several comédies en vaudeville published, most of them written in collaboration with Jean-Louis-Auguste Commerson, then director of le Tintamarre.
Having abandoned teaching, Bapaume contributed a number of humorous articles to this newspaper, including a series of Medallions etching which earned him some trouble with certain fellow of actresses of whom he had drawn very unflattering portraits.
[1] When Commerson sold the Tintamarre to Touchatout and revived the Tam-Tam[2] in 1872, Bapaume followed him and wrote there articles under the name "Commodore".
[1]" This unbridled imagination and cheerfully mocking tone are found in La Rome tintamarresque, histoire drolatique et anecdotique de Rome depuis sa fondation jusqu'au moyen âge et de Napoléon Ier, histoire tamtamarresque du grand homme, that Bapaume published between 1870 and 1872.
After he became both the owner and chief editor of the Tam-Tam after Commerson died in 1879, he continued to publish novels into old age.