He discovered his vocation for Southeast Asian art in front of an illustration of Angkor Wat temple, during his visit to the Exposition coloniale de Marseille [fr] in 1922.
Upon his return to France after being released in 1945, he followed the courses given by Philippe Stern at the École du Louvre, where he graduated with a dissertation on the evolution of Khmer statuary.
He then left Cambodia for Thailand, where he discovered some murals from large pagodas, and studied the ancient city site of U Thong and the Dvaravati period.
From 1964, he resumed specific missions in Thailand, where he gave numerous lectures at the Silpakorn University and participated in the excavations of Dambegoda in Buttala Divisional Secretariat, Sri Lanka.
From 1970 to 1980, he was director of the research works concerning India, Orient and Africa for the Unité d'enseignement et de recherche [fr] (UER) and the research training programme "Archaeology and Civilisations of the South and Southeast Asia" (Archéologie et civilisations de l'Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est) created at the University of Paris III.