50 meters above the ground, Nathan Paulin practices tightrope walking above the port of La Rochelle

The tightrope walker and artist Nathan Paulin crossed the entrance to the port of La Rochelle on Wednesday evening on a rope about fifty meters high. Nathan Paulin, French "highliner" holder of several world records, crossed the 277 m round trip between the Lantern Tower and the Saint-Nicolas Tower, marking the entrance to the Old Port of La Rochelle, in front of 5,000 spectators. , according to the police.

First suspended from his strap, Nathan Paulin performed a pirouette to stand up, barefoot, on his wire. During his progress, he took several breaks by sitting cross-legged or lying down, earning the applause of the crowd and the honking of a dozen small boats massed in front of the port. "It's impressive. He may be attached, but you are never safe from an accident. He lay down, sat, played at moving the cable, we feel that he is at ease, ”says, amazed, Philippe François, a tourist passing through La Rochelle.

The project is above all to promote French heritage. With these performances, passers-by have the opportunity to take another look at a heritage site. “It is when acrobats drown in the immensity of a landscape that poetry blossoms. We seek to create a contemplative, even meditative state, so that the spectators take a different look at the monuments”. confided the director of the Théâtre National de Chaillot, on the initiative of the event with the Center des monuments nationaux, to Franceinfo. Nathan Paulin will take part in a new event in Bordeaux on Friday.

Star of the "highline", Nathan Paulin holds the world record for distance on a slackline with the crossing of 2200 meters made last year at Mont-Saint-Michel. This tightrope walker from Haute-Savoie is used to spectacular crossings. He won his first length record in 2014, covering 601 meters on the ground in the Lyon region. Twice, Nathan Paulin had also connected the Eiffel Tower to the Trocadéro in 2017 and in 2021.