She is the founder of Heresis, a review on Catharism and other medieval heresies and from 1982 to 1998 was director of the Centre national d'études cathares René-Nelli in Carcassonne.
Born in Mâcon, she gained a diploma as an archiviste paléographe at the École nationale des chartes with a thesis entitled "Les livres des Vaudois".
[1] She also received a diploma in religious sciences at the École pratique des hautes études and teaches medieval history at Montpellier University.
She is a member of the Société des historiens médiévistes and an officer of the Palmes académiques.
She is the author of several works on Catharism, both non-fiction and novels.