i think the oopsie daisies waited a WHILE to get married too. met as little kids, grew up together, probably knew they'd get married someday (small town, they were friends, it just made sense). i like to think jacques went off to study some kind of sciences at a university (i'm eyeing the University Lille - this would've been in the 50s, so the Science and Tech school wouldn't have been split off yet, but Lille was def still an important science university in france when jacques would've been attending). he scraped together his small funds, worked his way through school, maybe wrote to marianne for the few years of study, and came back prepared to bring life-changing technology to the people of Le Bulge.
it's important to note that by the time Jacques and Marianne appear in the beginning of the longform, recently returned from their honeymoon, they have already been very active in the town. their marriage is not the beginning of their impact on Le Bulge by any means. here are some accomplishments from almost certainly before they were married
marianne campaigned and was elected as mayor
jacques developed, tested, and implemented cybernetic/robotic body modifications for regular citizens, including bulletproof and tank-proof armor
they either captured and trained or inherited a previously-imprisoned kraken mime
marianne befriended and gained the trust and respect of said kraken to the point that it would sacrifice its life for her (i'm going to assume this was after she became the mayor, and that keeping the kraken is a part of her mayoral duties)
jacques has set up a working lab, gained the trust of the townsfolk, and has done enough experiments to have a standard routine and an ethics model
anyways. uhhh what was i talking about again
oh right. yeah so jacques gets back from university and sets up a lab and evidently some kind of manufacturing facility in town. i think that he would've heard a lot about weapons and armor development when learning about design and engineering at university in the post-WWII educational environment. and we know he's interested in chemistry and maybe biology too, so it makes sense that he'd have a bit of a hero complex around keeping his village SAFE. building things, using his degrees and expertise to combine the machine with the flesh and make the residents of Le Bulge immune to any attack. never granting himself those protections, though. maybe he was scared, maybe he didn't think he'd see combat, maybe the modifications would've hampered his ability to continue to experiment and develop tech.
meanwhile, marianne was volunteering with the mayor's office until she needed to earn money. maybe she gets a small-time job in local politics (maybe in the nearest bigger town), maybe she starts secretary or stenography work at a courthouse and moves into assisting and then running campaigns. regardless, over the next few years she finds out she's both very good at getting people's votes and very passionate about helping Le Bulge grow. she talks to jacques, her closest friend throughout this time, and he tells her to go for it, and he'll be by her side (well, behind her and a bit to the left). she runs, he helps, residents love the two young people who love their little town so much that they dedicate their lives to making it better, and marianne wins in a landslide. first political, then literal, but a win is a win.
she implements policy to get jacques' tech available to anyone. she musters a militia. she ensures the allyship of the kraken in the town hall's basement, and sits next to jacques at meetings. maybe six months or a year go by, and everyone knows they're together. they plan the wedding, invite the town, have a wonderful time, and put marianne's own secretary in charge of the village during their month-long honeymoon one town over (Le Bulge just out of sight but less than an hour's drive and always with a phone nearby just in case)
and we know the rest! anyways. tldr marianne and jacques LOVE their tiny french town so sososo much and love each other sososo much and i think they were at LEAST in their late 20s and probably early 30s before they were married. in this timeline jacques probably went to university around age 17 in approximately 1950 (young enough to not be drafted but old enough to be influenced by war ideology and fearmongering), which would put him at around 30 years old in 1963. (side note, wwii might partially explain the village's very small population......) since they grew up playing soccer together at a young age, i assume marianne is very close to the same age as jacques.
also after all that and finally thinking "let's finally get married! enjoy what we've built! let le bulge take care of us for a bit!". that's when everything comes crashing down. haha yeah 👍 andre beetroot voice
ok this has been my oopsie daisies ted talk. live long and prosper