She was towed to Puerto Rico after the islands joined the Free French later that year for preliminary repairs that would allow her to steam under her own power to New Orleans, Louisiana, to be converted into an aircraft ferry.

[2] The ships were designed to carry enough coal and fuel oil to give them an estimated range of 6,600 nautical miles (12,200 km; 7,600 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).

[3] The main battery of the Normandie class consisted of a dozen Canon de 340 mm (13.4 in) Modèle 1912M guns mounted in three quadruple turrets.

The ships would also have been equipped with a secondary armament of 24 Canon de 138.6 mm (5.5 in) Modèle 1910 guns, each singly mounted in casemates near the main-gun turrets.

[10] Still undecided on whether to complete the ship as either a battleship or an aircraft carrier, the Marine nationale's hand was forced when the Washington Naval Treaty was signed on 6 February 1922 and ruled out the former possibility.

The engines were rated at a total of 40,000 metric horsepower (29,000 kW) using steam supplied by a dozen new oil-burning Normand boilers that had a working pressure of 20 kg/cm2 (1,961 kPa; 284 psi), which gave Béarn a maximum speed of 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph).

[21] The ship's main-gun armament consisted of eight 50-caliber Canon de 155 mm (6.1 in) Modèle 1921 guns in casemates at the corners of the superstructure for defense against surface attack.

[6] Range data for the pair of mechanical Modèle 1923B fire-control computers that controlled the 155 mm guns and the torpedoes was supplied by four 3-meter (9 ft 10 in) coincidence rangefinders that were mounted on sponsons on the sides of the hull.

The 75 mm guns were controlled by two high-angle directors fitted with 3-meter OPL rangefinders, one on the port side and the other atop the forward end of the island.

[26] On 27 May Escadrille 7C1, equipped with Lévy-Biche LB.2 fighters flew aboard for a cruise to the Atlantic and the English Channel, visiting ports in French Morocco en route.

[27] Béarn made a short training cruise to Corsica and French North Africa between 12 October and 9 November to qualify pilots.

In December the carrier began a short refit that angled the forward flight deck 4.5 degrees downwards as the first step in allowing aircraft to land over her bow.

[30] By January 1931 Béarn was in bad shape due to the jamming of the center elevator's clamshell doors and the poor state of her boilers; by October studies were being undertaken for a major reconstruction to include replacement of the boilers, modifications to the forward elevator and replacement of the 75 mm guns by the newer and more powerful Canon de 100 mm (3.9 in) Modèle 1927 AA gun.

Cost and feasibility studies were also ordered to investigate the possibilities of replacement of the direct-drive turbines with geared models, fitting torpedo bulges and better horizontal protection against the increased threat from land-based aircraft.

She was initially based at Brest, but was transferred to Cherbourg on 27 November and participated in a training cruise to Madeira and French West Africa from 13 January to 26 February 1937.

In reality the carrier remained in Brest, conducting anti-aircraft exercises and beginning the process of being modified to serve as a tanker for Breguet 521 Bizerte and Laté.523 flying boats.

While docked at Laninon on 23 March, two crewmen were severely injured when blasting work nearby on a new slipway caused the front of the carrier to be struck by numerous pieces of rubble.

The gold was intended to pay for armaments purchased from the United States under its "Cash and carry" policy which allowed US companies to supply arms to belligerents while still retaining American neutrality – a practice that favored Britain and France.

The carrier was escorted through the Mediterranean and to the Atlantic coast of Morocco by the destroyers Tramontane, Tornade, and Typhon as well as maritime patrol aircraft.

Sold as surplus by the US Navy, 44 Curtiss SBC Helldiver biplane dive bombers arrived on 15 June and were loaded that day.

The carrier's aircraft were unloaded ashore on 19 July and the 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns aboard the fighters were removed to be used to bolster the anti-aircraft defenses of the French ships; Béarn received a dozen of the weapons.

[41] On 19 April, due to the return to power of the pro-German politician Pierre Laval, the United States pressured Amiral (Admiral) Georges Robert, High Commissioner of the Republic to the Antilles, to immobilize the ship; negotiations lasted until 14 May as Robert required that the carrier be able to move in case of hurricanes, but he finally agreed and the German Armistice Commission concurred on the 22nd.

Robert ordered her propulsion machinery compartments flooded on 3 July as a further act of sabotage, but this likely would have caused her to capsize so the turbines and boilers were filled half-full of seawater.

[46] The ship departed New Orleans on 30 December, bound for Portsmouth, Virginia, where she was docked on 8–19 January 1945 to fix issues that arose on the voyage.

Twenty-six North American P-51 Mustang fighters and three Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers were stowed inside the hangar with fourteen P-51s and forty-one Republic P-47 Thunderbolts on the flight deck.

Early on the morning of 13 March, the transport briefly lost power during heavy weather and collided with the troop ship USAT J. W. McAndrew.

After sailing to Oran on 31 July, the ship loaded 535 personnel, 400 t (390 long tons) of material and part of a damaged Breguet 730 flying boat bound for Toulon, where she arrived on 3 August.

[49] In December 1945, Béarn transported fourteen ex-British Landing Craft Assault (LCAs) and six LCVPs from Singapore to Vietnam, and contributed a shore party to man them in the Dinassauts (river flotillas).

[50] As Chinese Nationalist troops began withdrawing from Northern Vietnam in early 1946, the ship ferried some Piper L-4 Grasshopper liaison aircraft and three ex-Japanese Aichi E13A floatplanes of Escadrille 8S, together with 15 LCAs and 1 Landing Craft Support, to the Haiphong area at the beginning of March.

The number of crewmen berthed aboard Béarn fluctuated, but it averaged about 800 men, which taxed the ship's cooking and sanitation facilities.