In 1829 Verninac took command of the corvette "L'Astrolabe", with which Jules Dumont d'Urville had made his first voyage around the world. He went to Alexandria to pick up the mission led by Jean-François Champollion, which had completed three years of exploration and studies in the Nile Valley. He took them back to Toulon, and made friends with Champollion on the voyage. He then participated in the Invasion of Algiers in 1830.