Background
He was born at the Château de Frédière at Saint-Barbant in Haute-Vienne in the Limousin region of France.
He was born at the Château de Frédière at Saint-Barbant in Haute-Vienne in the Limousin region of France.
He studied under Henri Duveyrier, the Saharan explorer, who developed Foureau"s own interest in the subject.
Between 1888 and 1896 he also made nine expeditions to southern Algeria to study the feasibility of a transport-Saharan railway line from Ouargla to In Salah. From 1898 to 1900 he undertook the long journey from Ouargla to Lake Chad with Army officer Amédée-François Lamy, known as the Foureau-Lamy Mission, which was part of the French strategy to conquer Chad and unify all French dominions in West Africa. He made maps, established transport-Saharan routes and performed numerous geographical and meteorological surveys.
In 1901 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the French Société de Géographie.
In 1906 he was appointed Governor of Mayotte and Comoros and from 1908 to 1913 served as Governor of Martinique. Honours and 1889: Prix Erhard of the Société de géographie.