With Henri Milne-Edwards's son Alphonse, de Folin carried out a survey of the Gulf of Gascony.

He worked on board the Travailleur (a paddle-wheel aviso) in 1880, and on board the Talisman in 1883, for trips to the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands and the Azores.

[6] De Folin also described the genus Oceanida of sea snails in the family Eulimidae.

The sea snail genus Folinella was named after de Folin.

An exposition room dedicated to oceanography in the Musée de la mer in Biarritz, France, bears his name.