Wills in France: The Three Legal Forms of a Testament

France recognizes three forms of will under the Code civil, each with its own formal requirements: the handwritten holographic will, the notarial will, and a rare third form called the mystic will. This article explains what makes each form valid, how a will is found after death, and what a will can never override.

Information last verified on 19 July 2026. This article presents general legal information, not legal advice.

Jurisdiction scope: This article describes will formalities under French domestic law, the Code civil, as it applies in France. It does not address the law of any other country, and readers with assets or family connections outside France should not assume these rules apply there.

The Three Legal Forms of a Will in France

Writing a will is one of the main ways a person shapes how their estate, part of French inheritance law more broadly, is distributed after death. The Code civil recognizes three forms of will: the holographic will, the notarial will, and the mystic will. Each form has its own formal requirements, and a document that does not satisfy the requirements of the form it was meant to follow can later be challenged by an heir.

The three forms differ mainly in who is involved at the moment the will is made, and how easily the will can be located after death. For most people, the practical choice in France is between the first two forms described below. The mystic will exists in the Code civil but is uncommon today, and it is covered later for completeness.

A will drafted under any of these three forms operates within the same overall framework of French succession law described on the inheritance overview page, including the order of heirs that applies when a will does not fully dispose of an estate.

A will is not the only way property passes on death in France. Where a person leaves no will at all, or a will that does not cover every asset, the statutory order of heirs fills the gap. A will is instead the tool the Code civil provides for a person to depart from that default order, within the limits described later in this article. Understanding which form was used, and whether it satisfies that form's own requirements, is usually the first question a notaire addresses once a will surfaces after a death.

The Holographic Will: The Most Common Form (Art. 970)

Article 970 of the Code civil sets out three conditions for a valid holographic will. The document must be written entirely by hand, it must be dated, and it must be signed by the testator. Once those three conditions are met, the Code civil states that no other formality is required.

That simplicity is also where disputes tend to arise. A document that is typed, printed, or produced on a computer and then only signed by hand does not qualify as a valid holographic will, even if every word reflects the testator's actual wishes. The requirement that the text itself be handwritten is treated strictly.

The date matters for a related reason. Where more than one document surfaces after a death, the date on each one can determine which document reflects the testator's final intentions, since a later will can revoke or alter an earlier one. A missing or incomplete date is a common ground for a dispute among heirs about which version should control.

No witness signature is required for a holographic will to be legally valid. This is part of what makes the form accessible, since it can be written privately without involving a notaire or anyone else at the time it is made.

That same privacy is also the form's main practical weakness. Because a holographic will can be written and kept entirely at home, in a drawer, a safe, or with a trusted family member, it is more exposed than a notarial will to being lost, overlooked, or never found after death. That risk is separate from the question of the document's legal validity, and it connects directly to how a will is located after death, addressed later in this article.

The strictness of the three conditions in Article 970 is also, in a sense, the point of the form. Because a holographic will requires no notaire and no witness, French law compensates by requiring the document itself, in its own handwriting, dating, and signature, to carry all of the evidence that the testator personally made it and meant it. A document that satisfies all three conditions is treated as reliable evidence of the testator's wishes precisely because the requirements leave little room for someone other than the testator to have produced it.

The Notarial Will: The Most Secure Form (Art. 971)

Article 971 sets out the requirements for a notarial will, known as a testament authentique. The will must be received either by two notaires, or by one notaire assisted by two witnesses.

A notarial will is generally regarded as the more secure of the two common forms. The notaire is present at the moment the will is made, which provides a contemporaneous record of the testator's identity and, in ordinary practice, of the testator's apparent capacity to make a will. Because a notaire is involved in preparing the document, a notarial will is also less likely to run into the kind of formal defect, such as a missing date or a portion that is not handwritten, that can affect a holographic will.

A notarial will is, by its nature, held by the notaire who received it, which has a direct practical benefit described further below: it is straightforward to locate after death through the notaire's own records and the central register covered later in this article.

Involving two notaires, or one notaire and two witnesses, also means more than one person is present when the will is made, which can matter later if the will's validity or the testator's wishes are ever questioned. This is one of the reasons the notarial form is often described as the more secure option, alongside the discoverability advantage described below.

The Mystic Will: A Rare Third Form (Art. 976)

Article 976 describes a third, less common form, the mystic will. The testator presents a document, closed, sealed, and stamped, to a notaire and two witnesses, and declares that its contents are the testator's will. The notaire then prepares a formal deed on the sealed packet itself, and that deed is signed by the testator, the notaire, and the witnesses.

This form combines some privacy, since the contents are not read aloud or reviewed by the notaire, with a notarial record of the act of making the will. In current practice, the mystic will is rarely used, and it is included here mainly so that readers who encounter the term understand what it refers to, rather than as a form most people would realistically choose.

How the Three Forms Compare in Practice

The three forms sit on a spectrum between privacy and formality. The holographic will requires nothing beyond the testator's own handwriting, date, and signature, and involves no one else at the time it is made. The notarial will involves a notaire and either a second notaire or two witnesses, trading some privacy for a contemporaneous, professionally supervised record. The mystic will sits in between, keeping the contents private from the notaire and witnesses while still involving them in a formal act.

None of the three forms is inherently more valid than another; a will that correctly satisfies the requirements of whichever form it follows is legally effective. What differs between them is the practical experience of making the will, the evidence available if the will is later questioned, and, as the next sections explain, how easily the will can be found after death and what, regardless of form, the will is legally able to do.

What a Will Cannot Do: The Reserved Share

A will made in France cannot override the reserved share, the portion of an estate that French law sets aside for certain protected heirs, principally children. This limit applies no matter how clearly a will expresses a different intention.

A legacy that exceeds the freely disposable share, the portion of the estate a person is free to give away, is not automatically void for that reason alone. Instead, once the succession opens, an affected reserved heir can bring an action en reduction, an action for reduction, so that the excess portion is cut back and the reserved heir receives the share the law guarantees.

The exact fractions involved, and how the reserved share changes with the number of children, are covered in full on the dedicated forced heirship page. Anyone drafting a will, or reading one that affects them, generally needs to understand the reserved share alongside the rules covered on this page, since the two sets of rules work together rather than separately.

Finding a Will After Death: The FCDDV and Its Limits

After a death, the notaire handling the succession searches the Fichier Central des Dispositions de Dernières Volontés, generally known by its initials FCDDV. This is a central register that lets a notaire locate a will that has been entrusted to a notaire, whether that means a notarial will received directly by one, or a holographic or mystic will that was formally deposited with a notaire for safekeeping.

The important limitation is in what the FCDDV actually contains. It only holds information about wills confided to a notaire. A holographic will that fully satisfies Article 970, entirely handwritten, dated, and signed, but that was simply kept at home and never deposited with any notaire, remains fully valid. It will not, however, appear in an FCDDV search, since the register has no way of knowing the document exists.

Depositing an already-written holographic will with a notaire does not change the will's legal nature or its validity under Article 970. What it changes is discoverability: a deposited will is registered and can be found through the same search a notaire runs for a notarial will, which meaningfully reduces the risk that a valid will is simply never located.

This is a distinction worth keeping separate in one's mind: validity is governed by the Code civil, and depends only on whether the chosen form's conditions were met when the will was made. Discoverability is a separate, practical question, governed by whether the will was ever brought to a notaire's attention. A will can be entirely valid and still never surface, simply because no one knew to look for it or where to look.

Changing or Revoking a Will

A will can be freely modified or revoked at any point before the testator's death. This can happen through a fresh declaration made before a notaire, through a new will, whether or not it expressly cancels an earlier one, or, in the case of a holographic will, through physical destruction of the original document.

Where more than one will exists at death and they are not consistent with each other, the general principle is that a later, validly made will controls over an earlier one to the extent the two conflict, which is part of why the date on a holographic will matters as discussed above.

After death, an interested heir can ask a court to annul a will on specific grounds, including a defect in the form the will was required to follow, incapacity or unsound mind on the testator's part at the time the will was made, or, for certain gifts, the beneficiary's ingratitude toward the person who made the gift. These are grounds for challenging a will's validity, distinct from the reserved-share limits described above, which apply even to a validly made will.

What It Costs to Make a Will With a Notaire

Notarial fees connected to wills, such as preparing a notarial will, depositing an existing holographic will, or registering a will with the FCDDV, are set under a nationally regulated notarial tariff, not by the Code civil provisions that govern a will's validity. These are administrative and regulatory figures rather than legal rules, and they are periodically revised.

In practical terms, this means the fees involved in each of these steps are modest and regulated rather than large, negotiated, one-time costs. Because the specific tariff figures change over time and are set by regulation rather than statute, a notaire is the appropriate source for the amount that currently applies to a particular form of will or a particular registration step. A will's other main consequence, how much tax an eventual beneficiary pays on what they receive, is a separate question covered on the inheritance tax page, since notarial fees for the will itself and droits de succession owed later by a beneficiary are calculated under entirely different rules.

The cost of making a will should generally be weighed alongside the discoverability advantage described above, rather than viewed on its own. A holographic will costs nothing to write, but carries the discoverability risk already discussed unless it is later deposited with a notaire, itself a modest, regulated fee. A notarial will involves a fee at the outset but is registered as a matter of course. Neither path involves the kind of open-ended, unregulated cost that might otherwise discourage someone from putting a will in place at all.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about will formalities under French succession law as of the verification date above. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client or other professional relationship. Will validity, the reserved share, and challenges to a will are fact-specific. Anyone drafting, reviewing, or contesting a will connected to France should consult a notaire or qualified lawyer.