Payet was born and grew up in the commune of Saint-Leu in the French region of Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean near Mauritius.

[3] In 1976 he was a teacher in the Saint-Leu neighborhood of Le Plate but decided to pursue his education further by attending the Université de Lyon, where he did an IUT, which he followed by conscription service in the French army in 1979–1980.

He arrived without any information about Shioda's location but was able to find the Yoshinkan dojo with the assistance of a French speaking Japanese student at Tokyo University.

[4][11] However, in 1988, Payet decided he was unsatisfied with his own practice of aikido and requested that he be allowed to return to Japan to continue studying at the Yoshinkan dojo.

[13] He travels once every two months for about 1–2 weeks, and, in addition to the US, Europe and Russia, he has given seminars in Israel, Qatar, Canada, Poland, Germany, Italy, and Ukraine.

[2] Payet's Studio City dojo on Ventura Boulevard near Hollywood opened in 2001 and was named Mugenjuku (無限塾, mugen-juku, lit.

Payet returned to Japan in May 2005, settling in Kyoto as the assistant director of ITEC (Institute for Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness) at Doshisha University.

However, while training in Doshisha athletic facilities, he attracted the attention of onlookers and eventually began teaching aikido in Kyoto informally in 2007.

[4] In 2008, Payet opened a formal dojo in Kyoto with the assistance of shidoin (指導員, shidōin, "instructors") Yutaka Kikuchi and Masahiro Nakatsuka.

[16] The name of the dojo was originally "Mugenjuku-Kyoto" (京都 合気道無限塾, Kyōto aikidō-mugenjuku) to distinguish it from the Los Angeles branch.

Payet designed and organised the original international Senshusei Course (専修生 コース, senshūsei kōsu), in which foreign students can enroll in the special training course given to the Kidotai (警視庁 機動隊, Keishichō Kidōtai, Tokyo Metropolitan Riot Police).

[23] With the approval of Gozo Shioda, Payet developed a plan for a foreign instructor training course to run concurrently with the special police course.

Uchideshi conveys the hardships faced by practitioners during the "Koganei Era", as noted by Payet Sensei's training partner, and at the time fellow uchi-deshi, Tsuneo Ando Shihan.

[31] Through narratives and anecdotes curated from Payet Sensei's personal diaries, he communicates numerous aspects of what daily life for a foreigner practicing shugyo and budo in Japan as an uchi-deshi is like.

Payet is mentioned several times in Robert Twigger's book Angry White Pyjamas, about the author's experiences on the 3rd Senshusei Course (1993-1994).

In particular, in an extended passage that is set at the funeral of Gozo Shioda, Twigger says he "plucked up the courage" to speak to Payet and reports a subsequent conversation.

[32] For the content in this passage, the author visited Payet in France to conduct an interview while preparing to write the book following his graduation from the course.

[citation needed] In 2018, Payet Shihan and his Kyoto Mugenjuku Dojo hosted champion fighter and TV personality Nogueira Minotauro as a part of an Aikido featured episode of The 3rd Degree.

Season 2 Episode 4[35] features training, instruction, conversation, and demonstrations of Aikido shared between these two men as they tour various dojos and historical locations in Kyoto, Japan.

Payet also offers a Part-Time Kenshusei course, which meets on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings and is appropriate for older individuals or those with full-time jobs.