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Weather-wise, they’ve had the worst summer in almost 140 years here in Paris, which perhaps explains why the British Paralympians felt so comfortable.
Once again, they exceeded their expectations as the trendy colours of the season were gold, silver and bronze for their red, white and blue.
They won 124 medals – exactly the same number as in Tokyo three years ago – but eight more golds, 49 over the 11 days of competition.
Charlotte Henshaw and Laura Sugar added the final gold medals, in the women’s kayak KL2 and KL3 respectively. Both set Paralympic records, a fitting conclusion to a golden Games for ParalympicsGB.
While some nations have focused on just a handful of sports, Britain’s strength remains its breadth: medals have been won in 18 of the 19 events it has entered and 117 of the 215 athletes are leaving the Eurostar with something to declare.
It is encouraging that it is not just the established faces who have proven themselves, those who burst into the public consciousness in London in 2012 and are not stopping yet.
Of the 81 newcomers to the Games, 37 reached the podium, with teenage swimmer Poppy Maskill being the most successful with three gold and two silver medals.
Maskill, 19, carried the British flag at the closing ceremony at the Stade de France, becoming the first member of the team with an intellectual disability to receive the honour.
After their events, all athletes are required to pass through an area called the mixed zone, where the media can ask questions.
You could sense Maskill was absolutely dreading the prospect after winning Britain’s first gold medal of the Games 11 days ago, her responses polite but short, the experience one she clearly did not enjoy.
Five medals later, she is slowly getting used to the attention and even seems to be starting to enjoy it. Success at these Games is not always measured solely in medals.
In total, the team has been funded with £68m from the National Lottery, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also promised to look into a significant funding gap at UK Sport.
Cash is the fuel for the team, with Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid winning the 300th gold medal since the national lottery became the defining feature of the Games.
But perhaps it would be better for the Paralympic movement if Britain did not enjoy such success in the future.
The way the country has promoted and hosted these Games should be a source of satisfaction, but it is time for the rest of the world to follow its example.
There are some signs that this could be a record performance, with 86 nations medalling here, one more than in Tokyo.
However, the events seemed more competitive and medals harder to come by, with fewer world records over the fortnight.
“More and more nations are realising the opportunity that Paralympic sport represents,” said UK Sport’s performance director, Dr Kate Baker.
“The competition is fiercer than ever and the margins have never been so thin. If we find ourselves with few medals in the future, we will have to think about it.”
When Chris Hoy won three Olympic cycling gold medals in Beijing, he reflected that if he had still been competitive four years later in London – where he eventually defended all three titles – the system would have failed.
He meant that young talent had to emerge to challenge and dethrone the established order. It is the natural theory of sporting evolution; those you have inspired retire you.
Jonnie Peacock, 31, Jody Cundy, 45, and double gold medallist canoeist Emma Wiggs, 44, all have their sights set on Los Angeles in four years.
Sarah Storey, 46 and now a 19-time gold medallist, has yet to commit, but wheelchair racer David Weir, 45, said she would.
Jeanette Chippington, who made her swimming debut at the 1988 Games in Seoul, narrowly missed out on a medal in canoeing at the age of 54 and refuses to rule out Los Angeles.
And why should they? If they feel competitive, who has the right to tell them to stop? But it underlines the magnitude of the task – not an easy one in Olympic sport – of developing young athletes.
“Finding talent is our biggest challenge,” said ParalympicsGB chef de mission Penny Briscoe.
“We are not blessed with a talent pool comparable to others; we work with a very limited number of talents. We have proactively promoted our newcomers, and we need to promote the next generation.
“Age in parasport can be less of an issue and we should not discriminate because someone is an older athlete.
“It’s when they stop young athletes that it becomes a problem, but right now I don’t see it as a problem.”
Paris can look back on this eventful summer with great pride: attendance at the two Games combined broke new records, even if slightly fewer Paralympic tickets were sold here than in London in 2012.
If it had not been for the Games, politicians would not have spent over £1bn cleaning up the Seine or pledged £15bn to make the labyrinthine corridors and staircases of the Paris Metro accessible, even though progress on both ambitions has been slower than it should be.
The Parisians could have won a gold medal if they had complained, but these Games, despite costing £7.3 billion, have gone off remarkably without a single complaint. With one exception.
“My biggest disappointment? It’s probably the weather,” confided the president of the organizing committee, Tony Estanguet.
“I hated the weather in Paris this summer. The weather was the most stressful part of our delivery.”
But while the sporting shine has finally faded in the City of Lights, don’t expect British athletes to take too long to secure their victory.
This bandwagon continues unabated, 1,404 days and counting until the biggest spectacle of all arrives in Los Angeles, a city where everyone wants their five minutes of fame.
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