Giraud works for antiquarian 'Romi' whose shop by the Seine was frequented by Robert Doisneau, who made a series of photos there, and police inspector and future historian Jacques Delarue.
He visited and befriended many homeless people (or clochards as referred to in French), pimps, prostitutes and eccentric former convicts who inhabited various unknown areas of Paris near Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Place Maubert, the rue Mouffetard or Halles.
The clochard gets by during the night and often sleeps during the day wherever he is taken by fatigue, on a bench, a ventilation grille, even on the pavement or on the paths along the SeineFrom 1943 to 1958 he published five poetry collections, the last with a preface by André Salmon.
In 1955 his masterpiece, Le Vin des rues, appeared, it won the prix Rabelais and established Girard as the preeminent chronicler and lucid witness of destitute Parisians.
His unique knowledge of this underworld gave him the opportunity to work with the young director Alain Jessua on his first film Léon la lune (1956)[7] and with the photographer Irving Penn for a series of photos published in Vogue.
Like Albert Simonin, Auguste Le Breton or Alphonse Boudard he published reference books on slang used by people of the underworld and prostitutes whom he befriended.