PARIS: A self-styled “poet climber” on Thursday managed to sidestep security, climb on to the roof of the US Embassy building in Paris and spend two hours there before being helped down by fire fighters.

Herve Couasnon, whose previous stunts have included sneaking into France’s National Assembly and a nuclear power station, said via phone from the roof that he wanted to meet Barack Obama, give the president his CV and talk peace — a reference to Obama’s ongoing Middle East trip.

Emergency services established a security cordon around the embassy and readied a safety net for fear the eccentric bus driver might slip and fall from his position, straddled over metal railings on the edge of the roof.

Fire fighters used a ladder to reach him in his precarious position and he came down without resistance. In 2002, Couasnon made head- lines after making his way into the National Assembly as then Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was speaking.