@Mike_Kearney, I’ve been pondering this bisous business, and I can’t see how it’s a modern phenomenon (your French wife may of course be a ‘vintage’ spouse 
- excuse the liberty-taking).
It’s de rigueur here in Sud-Manche and most prevalent amongst the ‘very’ old like 80+, who are like nodding dogs on their way round the Tuesday market, bisouing all their relatives, friends, old rivals in love, discarded grotty old flames etc. They cluster like molluscs on wet rocks, blocking the way and giving pesky intruders the evil eye.
Anyway, just thought I’d mention that aperçu…