His 1925 book Geologie stratigraphique was a landmark publication in stratigraphy and was translated into several languages and went into many editions.
[1] Gignoux was born on Lyon in the family of stockbroker Antoine with origins in Nyon.
He studied natural sciences at the École Normale Superieure and under Charles Depéret at Lycée Ampère, Lyon from 1901.
He moved to Grenoble in 1909 to work under Wilfrid Kilian (1862-1925) but his study was interrupted by World War I.
He enlisted in 1914 and worked in the army meteorological unit along with Pierre Lory.