Born in Pézenas, in 1756, the proposer of the famous motion which allowed the Tribunat to start proceedings towards the proclamation of Empire had begun life as a (failed) lawyer before joining the Revolution and getting himself elected a member of the Directoire of the Hérault département (1790). Here his main duty was to oversee the sale of 'biens nationaux'. Curée was to become a Député to the Législative in (1791) and to the Convention (1792). Later in the trial of Louis XVI he was to vote for an appeal to the people and imprisonment until peace was achieved. After a brief return to Pezenas following the trial of the Girondins, Curée returned to political life in 1797, when he became municipal officer for Pezenas and then Député at the Cinq-Cents in 1798. He entered the Tribunat after the Brumaire coup. President of the Tribunat in 1801 and secretary in 1803, and Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur, Curée was seen by Bonaparte as a likely candidate for the presentation of the principle of heriditary empire; which he did so, on 30 April 1804. In return for his services Curée was made Commandant of the Légion d'Honneur, Senator (1807) and Comte de la Bédissière (1808). He also proposed the construction of Vendôme column and the building of the Temple de la Gloire, (the Madeleine). He died in Pézenas in 1835.