As a musician, he was part of a new wave of mid-to-late 1960s French singer-songwriters,[1] comparable in some ways to Bob Dylan or Donovan,[2] but also evidencing some of the harder-edged garage rock style similar to the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and Them,[1] and achieving some measure of pop stardom.

[3] Signing with the Disques Vogue record label in 1965, Antoine released his first single "European Highway Number 4" (French: "Autoroute européenne numéro 4").

In 1966 he released the EP Antoine's Fever Dreams (French: Les Élucubrations d'Antoine)[4] against the advice of his producer Christian Fechner and Vogue management.

Along with figures such as Jacques Dutronc and Michel Polnareff (and to some degree Ronnie Bird and Herbert Leonard), Antoine thus led a new wave in French music.

A 1968 song "Take Me Home" (French: "Ramenez-moi chez moi") suggested his disillusionment with being a musician, even as his popularity was spreading to Italy, where, after an initial hit, "Pietre" (Stones), still in the protest-song vein, he shifted soon toward a soft pop style and scored some successes like "Cannella" and "La tramontana".

He set out on the 14-meter steel schooner Om, sailing 17,000 miles solo and calling on Atlantic ports such as Nouadhibou, Rio de Janeiro, St. Helena, Tristan da Cunha, and Cayenne until 1980.