He studied law and became vice-president of the civil tribunal of Rouen in 1878, and a member of the appeals court three years later.
But he became best known by his studies on cuneiform inscriptions. Among his many works on Assyriology are:
Recueil d"alphabets des écritures cunéiformes (1860)
Exposé des éléments de la grammaire assyrienne (1868)
Le Syllabaire assyrien (2 vols, 1869-1873)
Les Langues perdues de la Perse et de l"Assyrie (2 vols, 1885–1886)
Les Pierres gravées de la Haute-Asie (2 vols, 1883–1886)
He also collaborated with Julius Oppert. He was admitted to the Academy of Inscriptions in 1887, and died in Paris two years later.