He attended the Collège d’Auxerre for his secondary education, then in 1853 entered the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr.

He was promoted to sub-intendant in 1875 and moved in turn to Reims (Marne), Toul (Meurthe-et-Moselle), Joigny (Yonne), Troyes (Aube) and then in 1883 to Bourges (Cher).

[2] Péron collaborated with Victor-Auguste Gauthier in writing the Description des Echinides fossiles de l'Algérie under the direction of Gustave Cotteau.

Cotteau retained overall responsibility and his opinion prevailed in questions of interpretations of genera and species and in general classification.

The idea of a general geological map of Algeria was floated in 1881, when the Association française pour l'avancement des sciences met in Algiers.

Péron's 202-page Essai d'une description géologique de l'Algérie (1883) was thus the culmination of thirty years of work.

[6] In 1902 the Ministry of Education proposed that Georges Rolland should write up the results of the Tunisian Scientific Exploration Mission (1885–86), but he refused for health reasons.