French daredevil tightrope walker Nathan Paulin has set a new world record as he completed a 2.2 km-long trip to Mont Saint-Michel along a wire suspended between a crane and the famous abbey on the tidal island.
Paulin, 28, let himself down on the wire just metres before the finish "for safety reasons" his entourage said.
"He reached the stopping mark and so the [distance] record is beaten," his spokeswoman, Laura Zhang, told reporters.
Paulin started his walk at an elevation of around 100 metres in late afternoon, secured to a safety line.
🔵🇫🇷MARCHER SUR LES NUAGES - Le funambule français Nathan Paulin a réussi ce mardi un véritable exploit en traversant la baie du Mont-Saint-Michel sur une « slackline » longue de 2,2km, battant ainsi son propre record du monde (BFMTV). pic.twitter.com/3KAX3cjzrw
— 🌐Le Globe (@LeGlobe_info) May 24, 2022
It took him two hours to inch his way, barefoot, along the two-centimetre-wide slackline.
World records
Paulin claimed the previous record when he completed the then longest crossing of 1,662 metres in 2017 above the Cirque de Navacelles, a steep-sided canyon in southern France.
His team said he had surpassed that mark last year in Sweden, but that the walk to Mont Saint-Michel was the longest.
Nathan Paulin began slacklining in 2011, aged 17. His website says he holds around 10 world records.
Other hair-raising escapades include a charity walk of 670m between the Eiffel tower and Trocadero, suspended 70m above the Seine river – the longest high-line crossing in a city.
He also walked 150m high up between two towers in the Paris-La Défense business district.
Mont Saint Michel, a 1,300-year-old Benedictine abbey, is a UNESCO world heritage site and a major tourist attraction in northwest France.
(with AFP)
