Durand's diplomatic career started mostly by accident. After Napoleon's escape from the island of Elba French consul in Barcelona declared his loyalty to the French emperor and Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, the commander of royalist forces in Southern France was surrounded with his forces. François Durand ferried him to Barcelona on one of his merchant vessels and recommended that Raymond Durand be named the new consul of France in that city. In 1816 he became the new consul in Porto in Portugal, where he spent eight years, until December 1824, and where he witnessed the Liberal Revolution of 1820.