Daredevil takes Seine tightrope walk

French highliner Nathan Paulin holds an umbrella yesterday as he performs, for the second time, on a 70m-high slackline spanning 670m between the Eiffel Tower and the Theatre National de Chaillot, in Paris

A French tightrope walker crossed the Seine in Paris 70m up in a breathtaking feat on Saturday, watched by cheering crowds on the Eiffel Tower and along the riverbanks. He performed the feat again yesterday. Attached by a strap to a safety lanyard, 27-year-old Nathan Paulin slowly progressed barefoot on a line stretched across the river between the Eiffel Tower and the Chaillot Theatre. He stopped for a few breaks, sitting or lying on the rope. “It wasn’t easy walking 600m, concentrating, with everything around, the pressure ... but it was still beautiful,” he said after the performance on Saturday. He said obtaining the necessary authorisations had been difficult for him, plus “the stress linked to the audience, the fact that there are many people”. Paulin, holder of several world records, performed the feat to celebrate France’s annual Heritage Day – when people are invited to visit historic buildings and monuments that are usually closed to the public. He said his motivation was “mainly to do something beautiful and to share it and also to bring a new perspective on heritage, it is to make heritage come alive”. He had already crossed the River Seine on a tightrope, on Heritage Day in 2017.