His most famous work was Les Choses de la Vie,[3] which was adapted for film, with a complete change of its ending, by Claude Sautet, with Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli.

During World War II he reported for the provincial paper L'Echo de la Loire and later had a job as a news editor for another regional daily, L'Ouest-Eclair.

One year later, he published The Irony of Fate which, like Rue du Havre, explores the role of chance in human relationships.

"My only regret is not to have obtained at the time of my passage to the Elysium the creation of an academy of the Sea", Guimard said, affirming that this experiment "was not directed, but only one long accident".

Most of Guimard's novels deal about the role of randomness in life (mainly L'Ironie du sort), time, man's understanding of hidden and ironic structures in which he is trapped.