Monday 30 April 2007

The wrong way to bisous (or bisous overload)

So apparently I've been doing it all wrong.

Jérôme told me a couple days ago that I bisous strangely. After almost 10 years in France! He said I look like I am trying really hard not to touch my lips to the person. But I thought it was cheek to cheek, kissing the air. All this time, I've been doing it wrong.

I'll admit, I'm not a great fan of the bisous. My family isn't very tactile so I think I have a predisposition to non-contact greetings such as waves. Family aside, I just don't like kissing people I don't know. And I don't like kissing people in every single social situation, like our accountant at work or my doctor. I like kissing my friends and family hello, but when you walk into a room full of strangers at a party, why do you have to kiss them, especially when you know you'll never see them again?

I asked Jérôme what the right way was. Am I supposed to touch my lips to the person's cheek? He said it depends on the person. But what do I do if I don't want to touch the person with my lips? He said that I don't have to but not to contort my lips so they are obviously going in the opposite direction of the person's cheek. Who knew that bissous-ing was so complicated?

Ok, so I'll do it. I'll kiss my in-law's cheeks (but I won't kiss their asses) and I'll kiss my friends' cheeks, but my lips will not touch just any cheek...my lips are definitely not touching the doctor's cheek. Blech.

6 comments:

Kim/Thomas said...

you have to bisous people you don't even know...and wait...when thomas father met me...he bisoud me and i was really touched...thought he liked me...but really its done to everyone :( bisous are not so special are they??

Emily said...

Yea, I have a hard time with this too. I bisous with other women who actually kiss my cheeks which makes me uncomfortable because I don't kiss their cheeks back. I kiss the air. I just don't feel like we're at that point in the relationship...

Amy Plum said...

The worst is the first-thing-in-the-morning bisous, pre-tooth brushing, chez les beau parents.

Papadesdeux said...

Gee, another product of a non-tactile family. And I thought I was alone. Kissing people here all the time when you never even hug your own sister is really weird.

bibilamalice said...

come on - bisous are less painful than that american full-body-hug thing with people you've never met before - eek, I hate that.
At least with bisous you can just kiss the air and be done with it (you should in any case not lip-kiss someone you don't know, best just to air).
Lip-to-cheek-kissers are also usually moist-kissers, who are probably also pervs. yuck.

Ranjani said...

Do you mean to say that you're actually allowed to make lip contact with someone your bisousing??? One of the only three bisous I've ever experienced was with a French boy I had a secret crush on...and as with my other two bisous, I just air-kissed cautiously. What a wasted opportunity! ;) And the number thing with bisous really throws me off too...all three times, the bisou initiator has told me how many times they were going to kiss me before doing so...kind of ruins the moment. :p

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