The ship spent the bulk of her career in the Mediterranean and was assigned to the International Squadron off the island of Crete during the 1897–1898 uprising there and the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 to protect French interests and citizens.

The ship was recommissioned before World War I began in 1914, and escorted convoys for several months before she was assigned to the eastern Mediterranean to support Allied operations and bombard the Ottoman-controlled coast.

[4] Unlike her sister ships, Latouche-Tréville's gun turrets were electrically powered by two dynamos, each rated at 20.8 kilowatts (27.9 hp).

A watertight internal cofferdam, filled with cellulose, ran the length of the ship from the protective deck[6] to a height of 1.2 meters (4 ft) above the waterline.

While initial trials were successful, further testing revealed multiple problems that required over a year and a half of work before she was commissioned for service on 6 May 1895.

[11] During a gale on 18 December 1902 in Toulon, the small cargo liner SS Médoc was blown onto the ram of Latouche-Tréville and had to be run aground lest she sink, although the cruiser was barely damaged in the incident.

Latouche-Tréville participated in the spring cruise to the eastern Mediterranean shortly thereafter, before she was placed in reserve on 22 July when the new armored cruiser Kléber replaced her in the light division.

The ignition of the propellant blew the breechblock through the turret door and threw the sighting hood onto the ship's deck.

[13] Latouche-Tréville was recalled to Bizerta on 29 July 1914, where she unloaded surplus equipment as tensions rose shortly before the outbreak of the First World War.

The ship was assigned to escort convoys between Morocco and France together with her sisters Amiral Charner and Bruix, and then blockaded the Strait of Otranto until 5 February 1915, when she was transferred to the Dardanelles.

She was then transferred to the Syrian squadron on 20 March, and later bombarded Ottoman installations at Gaza and a railroad bridge at Acre in Palestine.

Latouche-Tréville rejoined the Dardanelles squadron on 25 April and was providing fire support there on 4 June when her aft turret was struck by a 210-millimeter (8.3 in) shell.

The ship was then returned to the Aegean to support Allied forces near Salonica, Greece, until she was ordered home on 5 January 1916 to be disinfected and refitted.

After its completion on 9 February, Latouche-Tréville spent most of the next year and a half in the central and eastern Mediterranean performing a variety of missions.