 From 1882 he taught at the university in Toulouse and in 1897 he was elected a curator of Académie des Jeux floraux.After changing his opinion about Altamira, he became one of the founders of the studies of the cave art and one of the scientists (together with e. g. Henri Breuil) who recognised its importance.With Breuil he made the initial survey of the Caves of Gargas at Aventignan in the Pyrenees, and where Félix Régnault discovered Gravettian cave art in 1906.