 She was twelve when the Gebelin family left for Paris, and just over fifteen when she married Adrien-Stéphane Brès, a tram conductor.Brès was able to pursue higher education thanks to the efforts of Julie-Victoire Daubié, who, in 1861, became the first female baccalaureate in France.However Brès had to first obtain the consent of her husband, as at the time French law judged married women to be the legal responsibility of their husbands.