Lean in and lightly touch cheeks (usually starting on your right, their left), making a soft kissing sound rather than an actual kiss on the skin. Two is most common nationally, but some regions do one, three, or four, let the other person set the count.
Reserve it for people you know or have just been introduced to socially. Business contacts, strangers, and first meetings get a handshake instead, see Shake hands in business settings.
- Three is standard in the south, especially Provence, and four persists in parts of the east and north (Aube, Yonne, and areas above the Bordeaux–Nancy line).
- Which cheek you start on varies too — most of France leads with the right cheek, while the southeast, east, and Corsica lead with the left.