Marriage.—A man cannot contract a marriage before he has completed his eighteenth year and a woman until she has completed her fifteenth year. However, the President of the Republic may grant a dispensation as to age upon good cause appearing.
A son who has not reached the age of twenty-five, or a daughter who has not reached the age of twenty-one, cannot marry without the consent of their parents; but if the parents disagree between themselves the consent of the father is sufficient.
If both the father and the mother are dead or unable to give consent the grandparents take their place.
Sons or daughters less than twenty-one years of age, who have no parents or grandparents, or only such as are in a condition which renders them incapable of giving consent, cannot marry without the consent of a family council.
Impediments.—Marriage is prohibited between all legitimate ascendants and descendants in the direct line and between persons who are connected by marriage and related in the same degree. Marriage is also prohibited between uncle and niece and aunt and nephew. The President of the Republic may, nevertheless, on good cause being shown, dispense with the prohibitions contained in the Civil Code forbidding the marriage of a brother-in-law with a sister-in-law, and the marriage between uncle and niece, and aunt and nephew.
Formalities.—A marriage must be celebrated publicly before the civil status officer of the civil domicile of one of the parties. The officer of the civil status before celebrating a marriage must publish the banns twice before the door of the Maison Commune, at an interval of eight days. The President of the Republic, and also the official whom he entrusts with this power, may dispense, for good cause, with the second publication of the banns.
Foreign Marriages.—A marriage celebrated in a foreign country between French citizens or between a French citizen and a foreigner is valid if it is performed according to the forms customary in such country, provided always that the marriage has been preceded by the publications of the banns pursuant to the code.
The record of a marriage contracted in a foreign country must be transcribed within three months of the return of the French citizen to the territory of the Republic in the public marriage registers of his civil domicile.
Voidable Marriages.—The validity of a marriage which has been contracted without the free consent of both parties, or without the free consent of one of them, can only be impugned by the parties themselves or by the party whose consent was not freely given.
When there has been an honest mistake as to the personality of one of the parties the validity of the marriage can only be impugned by the person who was misled.