Piron is known for his epigrams and comedic monologues. Crébillon, Rameau and Boucher were fellow-members of a singing club: Rameau and he wrote a comic opera together. Voltaire, whom Piron saw as a rival, quarrelled with him, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau was a friend, while Jean-Jacques Rousseau visited to mark his (Piron’s) 80th birthday. His proposed election to the Académie Française (a body he took not wholly seriously) was stymied on the unearthing of an early erotic verse, put to music by Rameau.