PARIS (AP) Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, Paris began the final chapter of its summer of sports Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games.

French President Emmanuel Macron officially declared the Games open in a ceremony held outside the confines of a stadium, just like when the Olympics opened in the city on July 26.

Against the backdrop of a setting sun, thousands of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elyses avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris.