He returned to Belley and was for a year the elected mayor. At a later stage of the Revolution there was a bounty on his head, and he sought political asylum at first in Switzerland. He later moved to Holland, and then to the new-born United States, where he stayed for three years in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Hartford, living on the proceeds of giving French language and violin lessons. For a time he was first violin in the Park Theater in New York City.