London, June 10 (ANI): After stacked heels and standing on tiptoe, undersized French President Nicolas Sarkozy has found a new way to make up for his lack of inches - a footstool.

A video caught Sarkozy, who is just 5ft 5ins, using the discreet wooden accessory during the D-Day commemorations in Normandy last weekend.

The decision to install the footstool may have been influenced by the fact he was using the same lectern as Gordon Brown, Barack Obama and Canadian premier Stephen Harper, reports The Daily Express.

“The footstool was put in place just before Mr Sarkozy made one of his speeches in Normandy,” said a source at French TV station Canal Plus, which produced the video at Colleville-sur-Mer on Saturday.

“He knew he was appearing on the same podium as far taller world leaders and would have looked ridiculous using a lectern set at their height.

“You’d barely have been able to see Mr Sarkozy’s hair bobbing up and down.

“Combined with his stacked heels, the platform allowed Mr Sarkozy to look as though he was an impressive height, although there were sniggers from those of us who could see what was really going on,” the source added.

Carla Bruni, the President’s statuesque wife, has confessed that she abhors when people mock her for wearing flat-heeled pumps to try to disguise the five-inch height difference between the couple.

The 41-year-old former supermodel turned First Lady, who is 5ft 10ins, said she could accept almost all the pressures of fame - except attacks on the husband she calls “mon petit chou chou” - literally “little cabbage” but usually translated as little darling. (ANI)