In total, there will be 12 flames, one of which will be the main flame, and they will light up different parts of France for four days, from 25th to 28th August, until they reach Paris and the cauldron in the Tuileries Gardens, near Place de la Concorde,at the beginning of the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, where the Opening Ceremony of the seventeenth Paralympic Games in history will be held.

The hot air balloon, which became an icon of the Olympic Games, will once again be at the centre of the action, taking to the skies each night. During the Olympic Games, it became a meeting point for Parisians and visitors who will be able to experience it again from 29 August, the day after the Paralympic Opening Ceremony.

France will host the Paralympic Games for the first time from Wednesday 28 August to 8 September. The origins of the event date back to 1948, when the German neurologist Ludwig Guttmann decided to organise sporting events for paraplegic World War II veterans confined to wheelchairs at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in north London. However, the history of the Paralympic Games can be traced back to the key years of 1960 and 1988.

The 1960 Summer Paralympic Games were held in Rome from 18 to 25 September, following the Olympic Games in the same Italian capital. These were the first international Paralympic Games as they are known today, following the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948 and 1952.

Since 1988, in Seoul, it has been decided that the city hosting the Olympic Games should also host the Paralympic Games, a tradition that continues today (Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 have also been allocated in this way).

This Sunday, the flame will travel from the UK to France, entering via Calais and the Channel Tunnel, which links two of the three most important countries in Europe. Twenty-four British torchbearers will take turns in the tunnel, followed by twenty-four French torchbearers from the halfway point, symbolising the handover between the two countries.

"We know from experience that Paralympic sport mobilises fewer people, but I believe we can take advantage of the Olympic enthusiasm. The Olympic Games were a huge success and people were a bit disappointed when they ended. This could be the moment to recapture that special atmosphere," said Pascal Pestre, first deputy mayor of Calais, a city that hosted the Olympic flame in July.

The division into 12 flames symbolises the 11 days of competition and the day of the Opening Ceremony. The different torches will be lit simultaneously before the fire travels to places such as Strasbourg, Montpellier, Lorient, Lyon and Lourdes.

All the flames will converge in the French capital, where the opening ceremony and lighting of the cauldron will take place on 28 August, officially marking the start of the seventeenth Paralympic Games in history. "The city has a policy of promoting, developing and giving visibility to Paralympic sports. This is a good opportunity to do so," Paris City Hall told AFP.

In total, the torch relay will pass through around fifty cities in France, involving more than a thousand bearers and six collective relays. They will pay tribute to those working in Paralympic sports, carers of people with disabilities and volunteers. A thirteenth flame will be lit on Sunday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Paris, and will then be presented on stage at the 'Rock en Seine' festival on the outskirts of the capital.

The main flame, which will start in Stoke Mandeville, will pass through Calais, Arras, Amiens, Louviers and Chambly before arriving in the Paris region. A total of 2.5 million tickets have been made available for the event and, according to the organisers, 2 million have already been sold, a clear success in terms of public interest.