” Hi ! (muah) Are you (muah) going (muah) biennnnn? “. Fans of the Unknowns will have recognized it, this is an excerpt from the clip Auteuil, Neuilly, Passy, in which the three friends caricatured the French kiss. A custom abandoned by many since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Now it’s more like: “I’m not kissing you, eh!” We wish each other good morning from afar, agreeing at best to an elbow check.
But for how long ? As vaccination progresses, the health situation improves and social life resumes, will this chief barrier gesture resist? Are you in a hurry to kiss your loved ones like good bread? What if, on the contrary, many were able to put up with no longer having to kiss their colleagues and the buggers around them? So, when the pandemic has (finally) disappeared and the wind has returned, will its opponents find themselves very deprived of it?
“A French tradition that creates links”
Total incongruity outside our borders, “the kiss is a French tradition which creates links, estimates Antoine, who answered our call for testimonies. I used to do it before and since the Covid-19, I feel less closeness with people ”. “I see it as an absence of conviviality and spontaneity, adds Véronique. This creates invisible barriers and does not facilitate relationships ”. An opinion shared by Poutrick: “It is a use that must not be lost, a gesture of proximity and human warmth”. For him, “a society where we greet each other with a nod from a distance of several meters would be so bland. And that would be condoning an impossible return to normal ”.
The current strike – suffered or granted – of the north wind is indeed a sign that the pandemic is still weighing on our daily lives. It is precisely for this reason that “I can’t wait for everything to go back to how it was before,” says Noémie, “when a kiss will be a sign of good general health. Enough of this weird life! “
“A sign of affection”
Especially since “it is a sign of affection towards the person you kiss”, estimates Lionel. So some, like Emmanuel, have not changed their habits: “Me and my entourage have never stopped doing it. Whether it was most of my friends or my family, we continued to live normally, without fear ”.
The fear of the coronavirus, however, it is what pushed a majority of French women and men to give up these warm hugs, which they dream of exchanging again. “I miss the kisses and the hugs.” Since I have been deprived of these simple affectionate gestures, I have suffered from depression, ”says Louis. This is the reason why Marie is “eager to do [sa] second injection of vaccine. That way, I will be able to hug my family like before! »Well yes,« when you are vaccinated, why not kiss your family? “Asks Françoise, who endures this period like” a heartbreak.
“No longer kissing colleagues is all about happiness! “
On the other hand, “no longer kissing colleagues is just happiness! If I can maintain this barrier gesture at work, I will, ”promises Laurence. It must be said that “doing it to forty colleagues every day, it was a long time!” “, Replies Christelle, who” reserves this gesture to the family, now that we are all vaccinated “. Like them, Betty will continue “to keep [ses] distances from colleagues ”, she who was tired of doing it“ out of politeness ”.
Cécile has never loved her. “It imposes a physical proximity that we do not necessarily want, so as not to be perceived as rude. The Covid-19 is a good excuse to refuse ”. Odile, she remembers, “long before the pandemic, a first meeting where I didn’t know anyone. I endured two welcoming kisses from certain colleagues, and I felt that as an incivility. Stopping the kiss at work is a relief for many women! Like Amélie, who feels “freed from a hell of a chore”. But also for men. Like Jean-Marc, for whom it is “a blessing”.
“Now I will hand-check everyone I don’t know”
And it’s not just the colleagues that some are delighted not to embrace anymore. “Before, I felt forced to kiss, especially to strangers we meet in the evening,” explains Camille. Since the pandemic, it’s over, and as long as it lasts! “Because” as a girl, kissing everyone on the pretext that they are friends of friends has always bothered me, says Julie. Now I will hand-check anyone I don’t know ”.
A feeling shared by Elisa, who “never appreciated these slobbery evening demonstrations”. Originally from Switzerland, “I was very surprised when I came to France when strangers kissed me”, recalls Béatrice.
A contact “without exchange of fluids”
For some, the kiss will not make a comeback even in the family sphere. “I don’t have to hug my family to let them know my affection,” says Marig. The same goes for Brigitte, who sees it only as a “gesture of convenience.” I have always preferred a hug: a true sharing of affection with a very warm contact, but without an exchange of “fluids” ”.
Isabelle, she decided: “It’s a ridiculous custom: we make four in Brittany, two in Aude – but three in Montpellier, and depending on where we come from, we tend first. the right cheek, or the left cheek! With the key to accidental kisses on the mouth … So it’s over, and I’m not even hiding behind the pretext of the virus. I prefer a good nod to those I meet for the first time, and a heartwarming hug to those I love and who love me ”.
“I haven’t been sick once”
Finally for many, beyond a pretext, the fear of the coronavirus is a real motivation. “Often in winter, people kiss you even when sick, and when you have weak antibodies, you catch all the viruses!” », Camille tells us. However, stopping the hugs turned out to be a barrier gesture of formidable effectiveness. “Since March 2020, I haven’t been sick once, whereas normally I have nasopharyngitis twice a year,” says Alexandra.
Véronique, for whom the absence of a breeze meant an absence of conviviality, admits that she was “able to avoid gastro and sinusitis this winter” which she does not normally escape. The same goes for Gaëlle: “The kiss to people I’m not close to, it’s definitely over. Thank you for the barrier gestures! “