Napoleon was 5 foot 2 but, wait for it, in French feet! So that makes 5'6 in English feet, which is not very tall, I admit, but it's not THAT short... Average height in those days was 1.65 m (5'1) so Napoleon was almost 2 inches above the average height of his contemporaries, you got that? Unfortunately for him, most of his generals were very tall. It's as if I had my picture taken among the American Basketball team! Now, in comparison, one of our former presidents, Nicholas Sarkosy (who was often lampooned as short in the media), is 1.65 m = 5’4 and Charles de Gaulle was 1.96 m = 6’4!

It has always seemed funny to me that some countries (I'm not giving names) still use the British Imperial measurement system (or a derivation of it). So I ask myself : if they measure someone's height by adding "feet" and "thumbs/inches" on top of each other, why don't they use as well "toes"in order to measure what's less than a thumb? Napoleon could therefore have been 5 feet 1 big toe and a pinky toe!

Now, talking about "pinky toes" (and how men don't like to be called one), I have to admit that Napoleon had small feet... size 6. Some of you (again, I'm not giving names) think that you can tell a lot from the size of a man's hands, we in Europe tend to believe that the size of one's feet are a better indicator...

Well, as far as Napoleon is concerned, there is a slight possibility (based on an unsubstantiated rumor long AFTER his death) that he could have been slightly short-changed by nature... but, wait a minute, not that any woman ever mentioned it or complained about it ! Anyway, to make a long story short (if I may say so): that's the kind of story that I can only tell you about in private because, MONSIEUR!, MADAME!, the reputation of our "big" man is at stake and I don't want the World Wide Web to know!

But he rode a mule on that day.

"Napoleon crossing the Alps" by David (1800)