Last Thursaday, I talked about "la bise" (kissing on the cheeks). I must say I never noticed it was so complicated before having to explain it!
In France, you basically kiss on the cheeks to say hello and goodbye.
If you're a woman, you will usually kiss on the cheeks people that you will meet (i'm speaking here of friends, relatives, friends of friends,...but not about people that you will meet just once in your life!). If you are a bussiness woman having an important job, then you would rather shake hands like men do.
Men will shake hands to everybody but people from their family (in that case they will perform the ritual of "la bise"!).
With friends, there are no specific rules. For example with my close french friends, I will just make a cuddle...
The tricky part of doing "la bise" is that you never really know how many kisses you will have to do. For example if you are from Paris, you might do 4 kisses whereas if you are from Lyon you will do 2 and if you are from where my parents are living (near Geneva) you will do 3.
It can get a little confusing when for example I'm meeting an old friend coming from my parents' region in Lyon...How many kisses do I have to make in that situation?!? (3 because we are both coming from a region when you do 3 or 2 because we are in Lyon and I'm living in Lyon since 3 years and am used to doing 2 now?)
Well...you never know but usually you will just do 2...it's enough to be friendly enough but not too friendly!
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