[1] Bourde's first publication, under the pseudonym of "Paul Delion", was a violent attack on the members of the Commune and the Central Committee published by Alphonse Lemerre in 1871.

[4] As the expedition passed through Port Said, Bourde sent a report describing it as a sleazy place where European prostitutes waited to fleece colonials who had made their fortunes in the east, rather than as a romantic oriental town.

[1] The 6 August 1885 issue of Le Temps carried a Bourde column, in which Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine were labeled "decadent" poets.

[8] The poet Ernest Raynaud said that Bourde was the first to use the appellation "décadent", meaning it as a slur, but the term was readily accepted by its targets, who became known as the decadent movement.

[1] Bourde learned from ancient accounts of the country and showed that fruit trees, particularly olives, could be grown in the semi-arid region south of Kairouan.

In the 11th century the Arabs destroyed the trees in an attempt to convert the area to pasturage for a nomadic population, causing great damage.

Bourde revived agriculture in the neglected areas, by working with associations of European settlers and local people.

He was a prolific author of reports on cultivation of cereals and fruit trees, sheep raising, locust invasions, cactus plantations and vineyards.

[1] He traveled to Madagascar in January 1896, but soon fell out with that island's Resident General, Hippolyte Laroche, who accused Bourde of trying to usurp his position.

[12] It was unveiled in Sfax, Tunisia, by Resident General François Manceron on 13 April 1930 in a ceremony attended by many notable people.