After distinguishing himself in the field and holding various garrison commands in peace-time France, de Virot was appointed governor of the Invalides in Paris on 16 December 1786.

While his command consisted only of veteran pensioners no longer considered suitable for active military service, de Virot was also responsible for the safeguarding of large stocks of weapons stored in the building complex.

Demands had been made to Sombreuil by the newly organised electors militia for the handing over of the thirty thousand muskets stored in the cellars of the Invalides.

[2] Unlike Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay, the governor of the Bastille, Sombreuil subsequently accepted the revolutionaries' demands to surrender his garrison without attempting armed resistance.

His youngest son Charles Eugène Gabriel de Sombreuil was one of the commanders of an emigre counter-revolutionary force that made an abortive landing at Quiberon in 1795.