He was born at the Château de Frédière at Saint-Barbant in Haute-Vienne in the Limousin region of France.

He studied under Henri Duveyrier, the Saharan explorer, who developed Foureau's own interest in the subject.

Once in the Sahara, Foureau carried out the first artesian well drilling for the company Oued RIHR and then became famous for his numerous study trips in the desert from 1882, which earned him several awards from the French Société de Géographie.

[1][2] Between 1888 and 1896 he also made nine expeditions to southern Algeria to study the feasibility of a trans-Saharan railway line from Ouargla to In Salah.

He made maps, established trans-Saharan routes and performed numerous geographical and meteorological surveys.