A French highline walker crossed the Seine in Paris at a height of 70 meters, in a breathtaking feat to the applause of crowds on the Eiffel Tower and along the riverbanks.

Attached by a strap to a security cordon, Nathan Paulin, 27, slowly walked barefoot on a line stretched across the river between the Eiffel Tower and the Chaillot theater. He stopped for a few breaks, sitting or lying on the rope.

“It was not easy to walk 600 meters, to concentrate, with the pressure all around… but it was still beautiful,” he said on Saturday after completing the crossing.

He said that obtaining the necessary authorizations had been difficult, as well as “the stress linked to the public, the fact that there are a lot of people”.

Paulin, holder of several world records, has achieved the feat of celebrating Heritage Day in France every year, where people are invited to visit buildings and monuments 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 bring the heritage to life.

Paulin had already crossed the Seine on a tightrope during Heritage Day in 2017.