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Maybe it is because French is naturally the language of love, as described in Amy Walker's video (a Youtube comedian), "so you can remember... French kiss!" Indeed, French give that special kiss on the cheek, which isn't actually a kiss because your lips are not supposed to touch the other person's cheek, otherwise it would be all wet, which is disgusting. Therefore it doesn't have the name "kiss" (bisou or baiser) in French but a separate one (simply bise), because it's quite awkward. This bise is repeated four times in Paris, three times in Italy and only once in Belgium, and while it's considered as a female behavior in France, it's quite natural for men to bise other men here. But hey, wait. I was talking about the part that speaks French! En effet!
This is the actual way to do it.
The Flemish hardly ever give a kiss on the cheek, except with very close relatives, like Aunt Margriet, who likes receiving a kiss from her nephew who "is growing up so fast!" So while Belgian French speakers bise once to say "salut, ça va ?" (hi, doing good?) and once to say goodbye, the Flemish just wave their hand or give a handshake to say hello and say "daag" (g'day) waving again their hand when they leave, because it saves time! (Maybe that's why they're so productive...).
The confrontation between two unaware specimens can be quite funny (even if they both speak English... or French, which is quite often the case), because one will say hello, the other one will lean forward to bise and nothing will happen. Then the French speaker will insist and the Flemish will say "ehm... I said hello" (thinking the other one is just pricking their ears up) or "have you lost something?" (thinking they're looking at the ground). For this reason, French speakers will depict their neighbours as cold while Flemish will probably think that French speakers are awkward kissomaniacs. Qui sait?
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