His handbook Manuel de l'acclimateur (Paris, 1888) is a reference work on the acclimatization of the Riviera in the 19th century.
The garden was created in 1857 by Gustave Thuret (1817-1875), a botanist best known for studies of reproduction in algae, who used it to conduct plant acclimatization trials with friend and lichen expert Jean-Baptiste Édouard Bornet (1828-1911).
He was a member of the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society and its president from 1891 to 1893; he was president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Pastoralists' Association, the St Peter's Old Collegians Association, the Caledonian Society, the South Australian Zoological and Acclimatization Society, and was a member of the Adelaide University council.
In the 1930s Paul and his wife, Hélène Castori, having discovered a game reserve maintained by Khengarji III, Maharao of Kutch, decided to create an "animal paradise" at Branféré by letting exotic animals from around the world acclimatize to the property and roam free, creating a park where animals and humans could interact.