* News

Death of the French kiss? Mayor refuses to give 'la bise' to her 73
colleagues

--
     * France

   A French mayor has made national waves by declaring she will no longer
   give la bise to 73 colleagues every morning, confessing she
   deliberately arrived late for meetings to avoid the Gallic greeting
   kiss.

   Aude Picard-Wolff, the mayor of Morette, in Isère,
--

   But little did she know the message would go viral and ignite
   soul-searching in the media over the quintessentially French way of
   saying "bonjour".

--
   give a peck to droves of colleagues every time she held a meeting.

   French President Emmanuel Macron (R)and French Junior Minister for
   Gender Equality Marlene Schiappa kiss after delivering a speech during
   the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
   French President Emmanuel Macron (R)and French Junior Minister for
   Gender Equality Marlene Schiappa kiss after delivering a speech during
   the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
   Credit:  LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP
--
   Speaking to Dauphiné Libéré newspaper, afterwards, she confessed: "For
   many months, I have often arrived late to town meetings because I
   simply didn't want to kiss 73 local councillors."

   "One day, my cold came in handy and it was easier and faster to say I
--
   practice or whether "a woman would take it the wrong way".

   Alain d’Iribarne, a labour sociologist and economist, said the French
   fad for la bise took off after the student uprisings of 1968 which
   promoted "familiarity over hierarchical distance". It has caught on
--
   told 20 Minutes.

   Confusion is compounded by the fact that the number of kisses varies
   between regions from one to five, as do the rules on which cheek to
   start with, raising the risk of being left high and dry.

   One Frenchman has even created a website called combiendebises.com (how
   many kisses) to clarify the situation, in which French have voted for
   how many kisses they give per region.

   French-based British comedian Paul Taylor summed up the kissing
   conundrum in an online film that has been viewed 2.8 million times.

     [VIDEO] French people kiss hello #LaBise #LOL Hard for #English
     #Expats in #Paris.
     here: https://t.co/VJLWVIgvic pic.twitter.com/stCwNnMfVK
     — French Fried Comedy (@FrenchFriedTV) January 1, 2016

   For him, besides gender issues by far the worst thing about la bise is
   that "when you go out for a drink with friends, before you can actually
   drink a drink, you have to say hello to them all individually (with a
   kiss)".

   One regional newspaper Le Populaire du Centre even timed how long it