[1][4] For many years he played on level terms with Boncourt, a strong player, and received odds of pawn and two moves from Deschapelles and Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais.

[1][3] In December 1841 he revived Le Palamède (at its inception in 1836 the world's first chess periodical),[6][7] which ran until 1847.

[10] Returning to Paris, he witnessed the adulatory reception accorded Paul Morphy at the Café de la Régence.

For his role in saving the Palais des Tuileries from destruction by the mob, he was made its Governor for a few months.

Upon returning to France he spent some years writing well-regarded works on the French colonies, and a treatise on the wines of Bordeaux.