Kissing on the cheeks by Mikebond
One of the customs that most shocks foreign tourists from outside Europe when they visit Paris (which is in most cases their first journey to France) is the social act of kissing people on the cheeks upon meeting and often upon departing, too. This gesture is called in French se faire la bise (litterally "to do the peck") and, unlike what people may think, it is not typically Parisian, since it originated in Bretagne before spreading across France and most European country.Since the number of kisses on the cheeks varies from one region to the other, but also from a village to the neighbouring one, you should always know how many kisses are supposed to be exchanged. From what I have seen and read, Parisians give either two or four kisses, but I'm not sure of when they give two and when four. I guess that two kisses are for people one meets every day and four are for people one meets from time to time. I also suppose that when one meets a group of several people and has to do the bise to all of them (yes, that is socially compulsory!), one gives two kisses because four would take too long.
However, beware that in the rest of Ile-de-France the number of kisses changes, but I don't know what the praxis is, since I have never seen it. Follow the links above to learn more about the bise.
