Sarko Uses Footstool to Measure Up to Obama

5'5" French president shorter than Napoleon
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 10, 2009 7:06 AM CDT
Sarko Uses Footstool to Measure Up to Obama
World leaders are shown as they arrive at the Normandy American Cemetery, Omaha Beach, Colleville-sur-mer in France on June 6, 2009.   (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Sean Kilpatrick)

At 5 feet 5 inches, Nicolas Sarkozy seems to feel a bit stature-challenged—so at the recent D-Day tribute, he used a 6-inch footstool, in addition to his elevator shoes, to hold his own against Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, the Daily Mail reports. Sarko “knew he was appearing on the same podium as far taller world leaders, and would have looked ridiculous” without it, says a French TV source.

"You'd barely have been able to see his hair bobbing up and down," the source adds, while the Mail can't resist noting that Sarkozy is even shorter than the famously diminutive Napoleon—who the paper reports was 5'6"—and that French first lady Carla Bruni, herself no slouch at 5'9", is incessantly chided for wearing flats to avoid towering over her husband.

(More Nicolas Sarkozy stories.)

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