Planchat was born in Saint-Oradoux-de-Chirouze (Creuse) in a modest family who was into farming and inn-keeping.
It is thought that he sent specimens to the natural history trader W. F. H. Rosenberg who in turn sold it to collectors.
He sent insects to René Oberthür and some bird skins and eggs to Adolph Nehrkorn.
His specimen labels make use of the very poorly documented Ajami script in addition to French.
Along with his family he made visits to France for health, making use of the available leave of 3 months for every two years of service, and died following a fever at the age of 36.