White House officials were not amused when French journalists took advantage of President François Hollande’s Washington visit to take “selfies” in the Oval Office.

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Canal Plus reporter Laurence Haim said irritated White House staff told the journalists it was “not the done thing” to take a picture of oneself with a mobile phone with two heads of state in the presidential office.

One particular picture was doing the rounds of French media outlets on Wednesday, showing Thomas Wieder, a reporter at respected French daily Le Monde, grinning broadly as he took a “selfie” with Hollande and US President Barack Obama in the distant background.

But if White House officials were annoyed at the self-indulgent behaviour of some French journalists in the Oval Office, Obama himself is no stranger to the “selfie” photographic phenomenon.

The American president made his own headlines in December 2013 when he was caught on camera posing for a “selfie” with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and her UK counterpart David Cameron at the memorial service for former South African president Nelson Mandela.

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