Nicolas Sarkozy waved to crowds of supporters as he entered prison this morning to begin his five-year sentence after sharing an emotional goodbye with his wife Carla Bruni.

The former French president, 70, arrived at La Santé prison on Tuesday morning, with reporters hearing convicts shouting from their cells: 'Welcome Sarkozy!', 'Sarkozy's here.'

Sarkozy's conviction caps years of legal battles over allegations that his 2007 campaign took millions in cash from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later overthrown and killed during the Arab Spring uprisings. 

'I'm not afraid of prison. I'll keep my head held high, including at the prison gates,' Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper ahead of his incarceration.

Sarkozy will be facing a 'tough time' in Paris's La Santé prison, and is likely to be held in a nine square metre cell in the prison's isolation wing. His lawyer, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he has 'some pullovers as prisons can be cold and some earplugs as there could also be a lot of noise. Isolation like what he's going to go through is painful, but he got himself prepared.'

Speaking outside the Paris prison moments after the former French president entered, Sarkozy's lawyers revealed his legal team has already lodged a request for parole, with their mission being to take him out 'as quickly as possible'.

More than 100 people stood outside the jail this morning, after his son Louis, 28, called on supporters to rally in support of his father in the high-end Paris neighbourhood where the former French president lives. Another son, Pierre, called for a message of love - 'nothing else, please'.

As Sarkozy prepared to begin his prison term, he posted a message on social media repeating his claims that he is an 'innocent man' and said he feels a 'deep sorrow' for France. 

'As I prepare to cross the walls of La Santé prison, my thoughts go out to the French people of all walks of life and opinions,' he said.

'I want to tell them with my unwavering strength that it is not a former President of the Republic who is being locked up this morning, it is an innocent person.'