French family law is a codified, secular system that governs marriage, civil partnerships (PACS), matrimonial property, divorce, parental authority, child support, inheritance, and protection from domestic violence. Written statutes in the Civil Code set the rules, religious affiliation carries no legal weight, and the state actively oversees family structures to uphold equality among citizens.
What follows is a practical map of how the main pieces fit together, whether you are marrying in France, separating from a French spouse, raising children across a border, or handling an estate.
Marriage and PACS
Two adults can formalize their relationship in France through marriage or through a PACS (Pacte Civil de Solidarité). Both are open to same-sex and opposite-sex couples, and both are registered by the state rather than by any religious authority.
To marry, each person must be at least 18 and must freely consent. The ceremony has to take place before a civil registrar at a town hall to have legal effect, and the town hall must first publish the banns for at least 10 days before the wedding can go ahead.1Service Public. Marriage in France Same-sex couples have had identical marriage rights since 2013.
Foreigners marrying in France usually need a certificate of custom explaining the marriage rules of their home country and a certificate of celibacy proving they are not already married, along with a recent birth certificate. Foreign-language documents must be translated by a sworn translator, and documents from abroad generally require an apostille.1Service Public. Marriage in France U.S. citizens hit a specific wrinkle: because American vital records are managed by each state, the U.S. Embassy cannot issue those certificates and instead provides a substitute attestation.2U.S. Embassy & Consulates in France. Marriage and Civil Partnerships (PACS) in France
A PACS is a lighter civil contract, registered at the town hall or with a notary. For income tax, PACS partners and married couples are treated identically: one household, pooled brackets. The differences show up elsewhere. A surviving PACS partner has no automatic inheritance rights unless named in a will, while a surviving spouse is entitled to at least a quarter of the estate as a matter of right. Both PACS partners and spouses are fully exempt from inheritance tax on assets left to them; unrelated individuals face a flat 60% rate.
Ending a PACS is straightforward. Either partner can dissolve it unilaterally by having a process server notify the other, or both can file a joint declaration at the town hall. It also ends automatically if either partner marries or dies.
Matrimonial Property Regimes
If you marry in France without signing a contract first, you fall under the default regime: community of property reduced to acquests. Assets acquired during the marriage belong to both spouses jointly; anything owned before the wedding or inherited during the marriage stays separate. Debts taken on for the household are shared.3European e-Justice Portal. Matrimonial Property Regimes – France
Couples who want a different arrangement visit a notary before the wedding to draft a marriage contract. The two most common alternatives:
- Separation of property, where each spouse keeps full ownership and control of what they acquire, before or during the marriage. This suits business owners and people bringing significant assets into the marriage.4Service Public. Marriage Contract
- Universal community, where all assets merge into a single joint pool regardless of when they were acquired. Simple, but each spouse is fully exposed to the other’s debts.
Notary fees for marriage contracts are regulated. The notary’s own emolument is fixed at €188.68 excluding taxes when the property mentioned in the contract is worth €30,800 or less, and becomes proportional above that. Taxes and administrative disbursements are added on top, so the total commonly runs from a few hundred to several thousand euros depending on the estate.4Service Public. Marriage Contract5Notaires de France. Notary Tariffs: Emoluments and Fees
You can change your regime after the wedding. Since a 2019 reform, the two-year waiting period and automatic court approval are gone in most cases. A notary drafts the new agreement, and you must notify your adult children and creditors. If any of them objects, a judge decides whether the change goes through.3European e-Justice Portal. Matrimonial Property Regimes – France6Service Public. How to Change or Modify Your Matrimonial Property Regime
The Four Types of Divorce
French law offers four routes out of a marriage. The right one depends on whether the spouses agree, what happened, and how long they have been apart.
Divorce by mutual consent is the fastest and cheapest. When both spouses agree on everything, property, custody, support, they draft a comprehensive agreement with their two lawyers, observe a mandatory 15-day cooling-off period that no one can waive, and file the signed agreement with a notary who checks it and gives it legal force.7Notaires de France. What Procedure in Case of a Divorce in France No judge, no hearing. One catch: if a minor child asks to be heard by a judge, the out-of-court route closes and the couple goes through the courts instead.
Divorce for fault is available when one spouse has seriously or repeatedly breached marital obligations, for example infidelity, abandonment, or abuse, and the breach makes life together intolerable.8Service Public. Divorce for Misconduct The court weighs the evidence before granting the decree, which means more time and more cost.
Divorce for permanent separation requires no wrongdoing. Once the spouses have lived apart for at least one year, either can petition on the basis that the marital bond has been permanently altered. The court checks that the separation has lasted long enough.
Divorce by acceptance of breakdown covers the middle ground: both spouses agree the marriage is over but disagree about the consequences. The court sorts out the disputed points while accepting the shared decision to end the marriage.
Parental Authority, Custody, and Relocation
Parental authority is a package of rights and duties centered on the child’s best interests. In most cases, both parents share it equally whether or not they were ever married, so both must cooperate on major decisions about education, healthcare, and religious upbringing.
When parents separate, the arrangement courts favor by default is alternating residence, with the child spending roughly equal time in each home. If the parents cannot agree on a schedule, a family court judge sets one, weighing the child’s age, each parent’s availability, and the distance between the two homes. A child mature enough to express a meaningful opinion can be heard by the judge directly.
Moving with a child requires notice to the other parent whenever the move would affect custody or visitation. If the other parent objects, the moving parent needs a court order before leaving. The non-moving parent can also ask the court to impose a relocation ban.
Where there is a real risk that a child could be taken out of France without consent, the other parent can ask the court to prohibit the child from leaving the country. In an emergency, a parent can file an opposition with French police that blocks the child’s departure, but that registration lasts only 15 days, so the parent must obtain a longer court order within that window. While the order is in force, the child cannot leave France unless both parents are present or the absent parent has signed an authorization form before the police.
Child Support and Compensatory Allowance
Both parents have a legal duty to contribute to their child’s maintenance and education, and the duty does not end when the child turns 18. It continues as long as the child is not financially independent.9European e-Justice Portal. Family Maintenance – France The amount reflects the child’s needs and the paying parent’s resources.10Service Public. Separation of Parents: Who Can Receive Child Support?
Most orders include an indexation clause tied to the consumer price index published by INSEE. The paying parent must apply the annual adjustment automatically on the anniversary of the court decision, without waiting to be asked. If the adjustment is skipped, the receiving parent can claim arrears going back up to five years.
Missing court-ordered support for more than two months is a criminal offense, “abandon de famille,” punishable by up to two years in prison.11Legifrance. Code Penal – Article 227-3 French enforcement in this area is notably aggressive.
Separate from child support, a compensatory allowance (prestation compensatoire) may be ordered when a divorce leaves the two spouses at very different living standards. The point is to offset the economic imbalance created by the split, not to preserve the marital lifestyle forever. Courts weigh the duration of the marriage, each spouse’s age and health, professional qualifications and career prospects, career sacrifices made for children or a partner’s career, assets and income after property division, and retirement pension rights, including any reduction from time out of the workforce.
A lump sum is strongly preferred. If the paying spouse cannot manage one, the court can spread the payments over a maximum of eight years.12Service Public. Compensatory Benefit Lifetime periodic payments are reserved for exceptional cases.
Inheritance and Forced Heirship
France restricts how much of your estate you can leave to anyone other than your children. A protected portion, the réserve héréditaire, must go to your descendants, and a will cannot override it.13European e-Justice Portal. Succession – France The reserved shares are:
- One child: 50% of the estate
- Two children: two-thirds of the estate
- Three or more children: three-quarters of the estate
What is left, the quotité disponible, can go to anyone, including a spouse, charity, or friend. The surviving spouse’s rights depend on who else inherits. When the deceased has children, the spouse takes at least a quarter of the estate outright, or a right of use over the entire estate; without children, the spouse’s share is significantly larger. The system routinely leaves a surviving spouse co-owning property with the deceased’s children, a frequent source of friction in blended families.
Cross-Border Estates
Under the EU Succession Regulation (Brussels IV), the law of the country where the deceased was habitually resident at death governs the whole estate by default. A person can instead elect the law of their nationality to apply, which matters for non-French nationals living in France who want to avoid forced heirship. French law pushes back, though: Article 913 of the Civil Code lets a child claim their reserved portion from assets located in France when the applicable foreign law offers no equivalent protection.
Protection Against Domestic Violence
A family court judge can issue an emergency protection order (ordonnance de protection) for victims of domestic violence, regardless of whether the couple is married, in a PACS, cohabiting, or already separated. Two conditions must be met: the alleged violence must be credible on the evidence, such as medical certificates or witness statements, and the victim or children must face a present or imminent danger.14Legifrance. Code Civil – Article 515-9
The measures available are broad. The judge can evict the violent partner from the family home, order the surrender of any weapons, and forbid contact or approach with the victim or the victim’s relatives. Supervised visitation can be arranged for children, and the victim’s address can be kept confidential. Standard procedure requires a ruling within six days of the hearing. Since June 2024, a provisional immediate protection order can be issued within 24 hours in the most urgent situations.
Recognition of Foreign Judgments
A foreign divorce or custody order does not automatically have legal force in France. For judgments from non-EU countries, you generally need an exequatur, a French court procedure that formally recognizes the foreign decision. The applicant provides a certified copy of the judgment, proof that it is final, a certified French translation, and evidence that both parties had a fair opportunity to be heard. The court will refuse recognition where the foreign decision violates French public policy, particularly on children’s rights or extreme financial inequality.
Judgments from EU member states benefit from simplified recognition under the Brussels II bis Regulation. Dissolution of the marriage itself is often recognized automatically, but enforcing orders on property division, children, or spousal support still requires formal documentation and sometimes further proceedings.
Legal Aid and Mediation
Legal aid (aide juridictionnelle) covers attorney fees and court costs for people who cannot afford them. Eligibility turns on household income, the value of movable assets, and the value of any real estate. For 2026, a single person qualifies for full coverage (100%) with an annual reference income at or below €12,957; partial coverage of 55% extends up to €15,316, and 25% coverage up to €19,433. Thresholds rise with household size, to €15,289 for a household of two and €17,621 for three at the full-coverage tier.15Service Public. Aide Juridictionnelle Legal aid applies to all family law proceedings, including divorce, custody, and enforcement of support orders. Contested custody and fault-based divorces easily run into thousands of euros in fees, so applying early is worth it for anyone near the income thresholds.
Family courts encourage mediation for custody and support disputes, and a judge can order the parties to attend an informational session. A pilot program that ran from 2016 through 2024 made a pre-litigation mediation attempt mandatory in certain courts for applications to modify existing custody or support arrangements. The pilot ended on December 31, 2024, so mediation is no longer formally required before filing.16European e-Justice Portal. Family Mediation – France Judges still regularly suggest it, and an agreement reached through mediation is faster and cheaper than a contested hearing.