In 1887 he began work as an assistant préparateur in histology at the Collège de France, followed by an assignment as externe to the hospitals of Paris.
In 1892 he became a hospital interne, and during the following year began taking courses in microbiology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
In 1899 he obtained his medical doctorate with a thesis titled Étude expérimentale sur le tétanos (Experimental study on tetanus).
From 1898 onward, Binot took over 15,000 photographs of places he visited during his scientific journeys in Europe and Africa.
In Réunion he photographed a total eclipse of the Sun, and experienced a plague epidemic affecting the islands' cattle.