Faire la bise

Mastering French cheek kissing

This post is prompted by a Tweet by the Globe and Mail’s Doug Saunders. In it Doug says:

Via @elwoodabout, France mapped by number of cheek-kisses required per greeting. The five-kiss actually exists, though perhaps only in Corsica. Imagine coming out of a year’s lockdown to negotiate that buffet of bisou-bouillabaisse

I’ll admit that as a small town Canadian boy the whole cheek-kissing thing is a stumbling block. Heck, in my family even hugging is pretty much a thing that is not done. I guess that finally I’ll have to confront that challenge and put my best lip forward.

Incidentally, the Wikipedia article on the subject also breaks down whether you start with the right or left cheek.