Kissing in Cherbourg (Normandie, France)

Another town I visited during my holidays in Normandie was Cherbourg, an important harbour in the Cotentin paeninsula. I went there to visit an interesting Fine Arts Museum and stayed there only a couple of hours, but this let me learn a little about the practice of the bise in Cherbourg. You could imagine it is similar to that in Bayeux, couldn't you? Well, you will be wrong. For what I have seen, the most spread number of cheek-kisses was four. I remember a pretty girl who kissed an elder man four times. I also saw people exchange two bises and others just one, but one kiss looked as the most unusual option.
In a small village in the internal part of Normandie, called L'Aigle (The Eagle in English), I saw people exchange three or four kisses, the latter being the most frequent.
In both cases, I couldn't observe many people who practised this gesture, but this can already provide clear evidence of how much the French kissing custom varies not only from region to region but, I would say especially, within the same region. That is why la bise is the most puzzling custom even for the French!

Kissing in Bayeux (Normandie, France)

I spent three weeks in Normandie (North-Western France) in 2001 and I could observe the practice of the bise (social cheek-kissing) in three locations.
One of them was Bayeux, a nice town close to the village where we had rent a house, not far from the seaside of Omaha Beach. There, I didn't notice any great problem concerning the number of bises. From what I saw, the standard greeting are two kisses (starting from the right cheek, I think), although three are also possible. One Sunday, after going out of the church, I even saw two people exchange five kisses, which I haven't seen anywhere else so far. At least one of them must have been from the North of France, where I have read they exchange five bises.

"La bise": the French custom of kissing on the cheeks

The French are famous for the custom of greeting people with kisses on the cheeks. This custom is called in French se faire la bise, which isn't translatable into other languages: literally, it means to do the peck (little kiss). I read somewhere (but I don't remember where) that the bise originated in the North-Western region of Bretagne and was first practised by people from the country, then it spread throughout France.
Be aware of this before going to France: the kissing on the cheeks is an institution in France. Whenever two people meet in informal circumstances, they are expected to exchange kisses, no matter if they are close friends or just acquaintances. Young people may kiss even upon the first meeting, especially if introduced by a mutual friend.
People always kiss to say hello, even every day, and often also to say good-bye. Women kiss everyone, men kiss women; men may kiss male friends or relatives, mostly in Southern France. The bise has almost replaced the verbal greeting. I've seen people kiss without saying bonjour ("good morning") or salut ("hello"). If you join a group, you must kiss everyone and here is the dilemma: how many kisses are to be exchanged? Well, there is no answer. The number can go from one to five (or more?) and varies from region to region but also from town to town, even within a town. In Bretagne, I noticed that people usually kissed twice or four times in one village, while in neighbouring villages the custom was only one kiss. A minor problem is: which cheek should be kissed first? It seems that in Northern France, people start kissing from the right cheek, while in Southern France they begin from the left cheek. However, this distinction is very simplified and it may not work very well. People also exchange one or more kisses during religious celebrations, when the priest says donnez-vous la paix ("exchange a sign of peace"). And, of course, the French kiss in the same other circumstances as other peoples kiss: to express wishes, feelings and so on. So, you see that it's very important not to forget this simple but problematic gesture.
In the coming posts, I will analyse the practice of the bise in many French locations where I have been, so that you can get a more precise idea about the complexity of this charming custom.

(This post was taken from my Virtual Tourist page about France, where the length is limited, so I may update it in the future.)

Why a blog about kissing on the cheeks?

I have become increasingly interested in the social act of kissing on the cheeks during my several summer holidays in France. France is one of the European countries where this gesture is most spread, but what makes it different from other European states is that the number of kisses changes from region to region and even from village to village.
So, I started studying this custom in the 1990s and, since then, I've kept looking at its practice in the European countries I have visited.
The main problem that justifies such a blog is that not all European peoples practise the cheek kissing the same way. Some exchange one kiss, some two kisses, some other three or more kisses. Furthermore, in some countries people kiss everytime they meet, whereas in others people never or rarely kiss.
This blog can be considered as the evolution of the Yahoo! group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kissing-cheeks-europe/, which has turned rather inactive lately. I will also post here what I have previously written in this discussion group or elsewhere.
I hope this blog will prove useful both to European visitors (to understand another element that adds on enriching our cultural diversity) and to non-European people (to learn about this custom which is unknown to some cultures).
Michele