Faire la bise

Bit low of news so far this week, so instead I thought I'd share a few interesting facts about the whole French kissing thing (faire la bise).

So far the only people I've had to faire la bise with are the Bogeys, but I thought I'd read up on it in case I go in for a kiss at the wrong time or the wrong way and end up banging heads or teeth with someone.

So the facts are:

• You normally only faire la bise with someone you know fairly well.  Women and women do it, men and women do it, men and men usually don't and shake hands instead.
• If you don't faire la bise, you shake hands.
• If you're not sure whether you should faire la bise, just go in for a handshake and let le Francais lead the way.
• You only faire la bise for the first time you see someone that day.  It's not necessary to faire la bise when you say goodbye, unless you want to.
• The number of kisses you give depends on the region you're in. Mostly it's two (as it is here in Savoie), but for example in Provence it's three, Nantes it's four and Brest they don't bother at all.
• Left cheek first!
• You don't actually kiss the cheek - just touch cheeks and kiss the air.
• Don't make a big 'mmmmwah' noise, as I did the first few times before I realised that nobody else was. Just a little 'mwa' noise, or no noise will do.

There doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rules, but I think that's the general gist of it.


Bisous xxx