Somebody had a wee tipple with Putin last week.

The Times - Sarkozy’s teetotal image is blurred

A video showing the usually precise Nicolas Sarkozy in unsteady form at a press conference that came after his meeting with the Russian head of state.

Apparently trying to suppress a laugh, Mr Sarkozy excused himself for arriving late and seemed at a loss to know what to tell the assembled journalists.

“Would you prefer me to answer questions?” he said with a broad smile as he swayed behind the lectern at the summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. “Well then, are there any questions?”

The newly elected Mr Sarkozy, attending his first G8 summit, shrugged and sighed as he fitted an earpiece into his left ear.

The video is the talk of Paris after it was enjoyed by thousands of people on the internet. The images also appeared on Belgian television, although TV companies in France decided against broadcasting it. …

Unlike Jacques Chirac, his beer-drinking predecessor, Mr Sarkozy prefers mineral water and orange juice. The 52-year-old is a fitness freak and a keen jogger whose only known gastronomic vice is chocolate cake.


Or perhaps not:

Times Online Blogs - Charles Bremner - Sarko sloshed shock

Listening to it — and watching the fuller versions on video — it is obvious that Sarko is in command of his faculties. But for some reason — perhaps tiredness — he gives an exaggerated display of his usual idiosyncratic verbal and and physical mannerisms.

It’s still funny. I’ve never seen him in moving pictures.