Our first day in France

It took less than seven hours to fly from Newark to Switzerland. Here, it is customary to greet a friend or new acquaintance with a bise (pronounced: bees), short for bisou, which means a kiss. Each region of France has its own way of doing the bise, some start on the left cheek and then kiss the right, some regions kiss four times and others two. Tim says here in Grenoble they start on the right and just kiss twice, unless the person you're greeting is from up north and stubbornly holds on to their own style of doing the bise four times. It happens very fast when you first see someone; a fluid, thoughtless good manner for all French people.
All I have to do to survive here is smile often, listen closely, speak sparingly, and most importantly: start on the right.