What is the proper protocol to greet someone in France?

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Marcel78

Formal way (professional for example) woud be :
"Bonjour / bonsoir (Hello day/night) Monsieur / Madame (Mr / Mss) " and shaking hands. You can reply "EnchantÃ©" = nice to meet you.

For friends or family or young people, kiss on the cheeks (both cheeks around Paris, 3 or 4 kisses in other parts... stick to 2 !)
with "Bonjour" or "Salut, Ã§a va ??" or any slang that suits.
That's between girls & boys or girls & girls. Between boys & boys, usually just hand-shaking although some guys kiss cheeks especially in southern France.

Hope you're set !

Mz Brunette

Yeah, the kissing cheeks thing I'm pretty sure is for initimate friends and such only. And it's a known fact that getting friends is France is hard, but once you have they will stay your friends through out life...

So what i mean is you don't have to worry about that. Just simile and be as polite as possible through common sense. Adding Madame/M after you say Bonjour/Bonsoir might add on to the manners :)

Santa C

The proper greeting is "Bon jour madame" (or monsieur) and at night "Bon soir madame." You will notice that shopkeepers greet each and every customer. Ppl also greet each other when passing each other in an apartment hallway,. The kissing of the cheeks is done by friends and not by ppl just meeting. Handshaking is also done but it is just a single handshake (not multiple handshake as in the US). In really old movies, the men kiss the hand of the women, but not in today's world. When ppl leave, they say "Bon journee." or "Au revoir" or "a demain" (til tomorrow) or "a ce soir" (til tonight, if they plan on meeting for dinner that evening).

Pedro

If you're an adult:
- Bonjour, to greet another adult. Maybe a cheek kiss if it's an informal meeting
- Salut, if you talk to someone you know or a kid

If you're a young person (around 20's or younger):
- Bonjour to greet an adult, and a handshake
- Salut, to greet a young person you've just met. No kiss if you just met her

Laurence C

Bonjour Monsieur/Madame. You shake hands if you are being introduced. It's Bonjoir for the evening.
The cheek kissing is reserved for family, close friends.
French youth says 'salut' and the girls will cheek kiss.

mjhorn213

Bonjour during the day and Bonsoir at night.

De'ville

Generally it is just the word "Bonjour". I have never witnessed the cheek kissing thing. They usually just ignore you anyway.

Juan C

You sniff each others B.O.

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