In 1867 Selmersheim and Louis Sauvageot won first prize in an open competition for restoration of a church in Brest.

[3] On 14 April 1875 Paul Selmersheim was named diocesan architect of Troyes, replacing Millet.

On 3 March 1879 he became architect of the Moulins Cathedral in place of Louis Gabriel Esmonnot, who had resigned.

On 12 January 1885 he succeeded Paul François Naples, who had died, as diocesan architect of Langres.

[5] In 1873 Selmersheim won a 2nd medal at the Salon for a project to restore the palace of the Dukes of Burgundy in Dijon.