Her major contribution to Tibetology was the cataloging of the entire Pelliot collection of Old Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
In addition to her cataloging work, she wrote articles on various aspects of Old Tibet, and she published a Tibetan textbook.
She was interested in art from an early age, and she painted and drew for pleasure her whole life.
Her studies began in Art History, and many of her early publications are devoted to Art-historical themes.
She finished her doctorate in 1927 at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, where she later taught from 1938 to 1963.