He was the author of the famous poem "Un Canadien errant" ('A Wandering Canadian'), as well as the novels roman du terroir Jean Rivard, le défricheur (1874) and its sequel, Jean Rivard, économiste (1876), among other works.

His family hailed from Savoie, France, and arrived in Canada when his grandfather Jean served in the army of Louis-Joseph de Montcalm.

He wrote "Un Canadien errant" in 1842 while taking his classical exams at the Séminaire de Nicolet.

During his legal studies, he lived in poverty and worked for the newspaper La Minerve as a translator and corrector and later as an editor.

In 1860 he moved to Quebec City when the government settled there, and became one of the founders of the literature magazines Les Soirées canadiennes and later Le Foyer canadien.