Drafted into the National Guard, Girardet witnessed the fall of the monarchy in July 1848 and fled to Brienz, Switzerland, where he painted landscapes. In 1850, he returned to France to illustrate a great work edited by Alfred Mame about the history and the monuments of the Touraine. This work obtained a first-class medal at the "Exposition Universelle" of 1855 and earned Girardet many more commissions by Mame, notably for children's books and pious works.