French schools ban French kissing shock!

This week is la rentrée for millions of kids across France – the annual return to school after the long holiday break. But with swine flu in the air, some schools are banning les bises – kissing.
The mayor of Guilvinec (in Finistère in Brittany) kicked it all off. She decreed that there would be no more kissing on the cheek for any child in the town. Not while France is having its pandemic alert at any rate.

The kids in the two local primary schools are supposed to keep their distance and raise their hand in recognition of each other. How very sort of “high five” American can you be?

Au Guilvinec, dans le Finistère, le maire a même décidé de proscrire les bisous en primaire. A partir de trois contaminations dans une même classe en moins d’une semaine, un préfet pourra décider de fermer l’école pour au moins six jours.
“Une recommandation de bon sens,” estime le maire.

And what if the pupils really feel a pressing need to show affection? They’re supposed to take a paper heart from a “bisous box” and give it to their pal. Yeah right. “Hey Pierre, I cannot kiss you any more but I’ve just sneezed on this little paper heart, please take it anyway.”

La bise is a very French way of kissing. The kids in our village in the Hérault spend a good five minutes at the bus stop in the morning and another ten in the school bus going into town greeting each other in this daily routine.

They give each other “un petit bisou” on each cheek. Three times. Maybe even four. A peck, a brush of the cheeks but never of the lips of course. It’s traditional, a ritual, polite, affectionate, elaborate and charming.

If les bises were a seriously important way of spreading germs and viruses and la grippe, wouldn’t France be the germ and virus capital of the world by now?

Completely utterly utterly mad.

Related posts

• Combien de bises? How many kisses? – check out a map of how many bises you should do in each département
• La rentrée