A student at the École normale supérieure in Paris from 1931 to 1935, Michel Labrousse obtained there his agrégation of history and geography.
He was a member of the École française de Rome from 1936 to 1938, then a teacher in a high school in Bordeaux until the breakup of World War II.
Drafted as Intelligence assessment officer, he was captured June 22, 1940, and was interned in Germany.
He was president of the "Société archéologique du Midi de la France" from 1958 to 1988.
He led excavations on the site of the Battle of Gergovia and especially in his native region of Aquitaine.