faire la bise

When I was riding home on the train/tram yesterday from school-supply shopping, I noticed something interesting. The train travels through an area with a few colleges so there are a lot of college-age kids riding this thing. So as I was sitting there, three young men boarded the train at the middle of the car where the door was located. A young woman was sitting at the rear of the train car and after the train took off and before the guys even had a chance to see her, she rose from her seat (1/2 car away) and walked up to them and did the French kissey thing. La bise. She kissed the first one on the right, then the left. She said, “ca va?” to the second one and did the same. She said, ‘bonjour’ to the third guy, kissed him, and then went back to her seat. That was it.

They never spoke again, they never looked at each other again, they all went their own way.

I find this all so fascinating, but so confusing.