 She enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire, where she won First Prize for tragedy and Second Prize for comedy.In July 1942, she auditioned for Marcel Herrand who engaged her for his Théâtre des Mathurins.There, over the course of the next three years, she appeared in several plays including, "Deirdre of the Sorrows" by J. M. Synge, "The Master Builder" by Ibsen, "Le Malentendu" ("The Misunderstanding") by Albert Camus (with whom she would later have a passionate affair), and an especially important premiere, "Fédérico", after Prosper Mérimée, with Gérard Philipe.