In 1866, Petruccelli was correspondent for the "Journal des Débats" during the Third Italian War of Independence and, in 1868, he married an English writer, Maude Paley-Baronet, whom he met in London in 1867. In 1870 he followed the Franco-Prussian War, recounting the events from the Parisian barricades and, after the fall of the Paris Commune, he was expelled from France by order of Adolphe Thiers (against which he turned bitter words) for having defended the Communards.