Before the competitions begin on Thursday, an estimated 65,000 fans will watch the participants from over 180 countries march from the Champs-Elysees to Place de la Concorde.
Starting at 7 p.m. local time (6 p.m. in the UK), the opening ceremony will be held outside of a stadium for the first time in the history of the Paralympics.
The Paralympic champions Terry Bywater and Lucy Shuker have been chosen to carry the ParalympicsGB banner with the approximately 4,400 competitors from over 180 countries who will participate in the parade.
The ceremony concludes at 10 p.m., following which events in a variety of sports, such as track cycling, swimming, taekwondo, and table tennis, begin the following day.
Just 22 of the total 28 Paralympic sports are included in the Paris Games. The competitions will take place over two weeks at eighteen venues, with a closing ceremony scheduled for September 8.
British athletes Helene Raynsford and Gregor Ewan lighted the Paralympic torch last Saturday in Stoke Mandeville, a community northwest of London that is regarded as the birthplace of the Games.
After then, the torch crossed the English Channel to France and embarked on a four-day relay that took it from beaches in the Atlantic to those in the Mediterranean and from the Pyrenees mountains to the Alps.
