First pick
Forêt de Rothonne
Wood or forest
297 ha10.6 km of path
2 h 20 minto walk all 10.6 km of path
4 km southfrom the center
Circuit du renardChemin de l'arboretum
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: ComBelley · CC BY-SA 3.019%woodland
Outdoors in Belley · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Belley is within 800 m of a park or wood
Belley has 19 km of waymarked hiking routes. No protected area reaches Belley; the nearest, Milieux remarquables du Bas Bugey (Natura 2000), is 2.4 km from the town center. 31 km of footpaths cross Belley (1.4 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Milieux remarquables du Bas Bugey, 2.4 km
Woodland
19%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
31 km
1.4 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
19 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
3
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Forêt de Rothonne
Throughout this page, the Ain median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
What kind of place
What kind of outdoors place is Belley?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
On waymarked routes19 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.Protected land nearbyMilieux remarquables du Bas Bugey (Natura 2000) is 2.4 km from the town center.
What sets Belley apart: its hiking routes, then protected land close by.
Against French towns
How Belley compares with French towns
Each figure against the 3,798 compared French towns (communes with an overall grade): the marked bar is the town’s, the line the median. Described, not graded.
Protected areas0%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
48out of 100
Woodland19%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
61out of 100
Footpaths1.4 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
43out of 100
Hiking routes0.8 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
78out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Belley has the 14th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (9,252 to 9,542 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Ville-la-Grand (6 km per km²) to Tonneins (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ville-la-Grand Haute-Savoie | 6 | 14% | 0% | 287 km |
| 2 | La Ravoire Savoie | 5.3 | 14% | 0% | 231 km |
| 3 | Poisy Haute-Savoie | 5 | 33% | 0% | 263 km |
| 4 | Évian-les-Bains Haute-Savoie | 4.8 | 11% | 0% | 299 km |
| 5 | Jarville-la-Malgrange Meurthe-et-Moselle | 4.6 | 2.7% | 0% | 369 km |
| 6 | Magny-les-Hameaux Yvelines | 4.1 | 29% | 100% | 149 km |
| 7 | Carqueiranne Var | 3.9 | 28% | 0.1% | On it |
| 8 | Vert-Saint-Denis Seine-et-Marne | 3.9 | 23% | 0% | 187 km |
| 9 | Redon Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.8 | 10% | 32% | 28 km |
| 10 | Condé-sur-l'Escaut Nord | 3.5 | 44% | 99% | 98 km |
| 11 | Fontaine-lès-Dijon Côte-d'Or | 3.4 | 2.6% | 0% | 400 km |
| 12 | Liffré Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.4 | 61% | 20% | 45 km |
| 13 | Arques Pas-de-Calais | 3.3 | 37% | 76% | 31 km |
| 14 | Rombas Moselle | 3.3 | 53% | 0% | 314 km |
| 15 | Le Passage Lot-et-Garonne | 3.2 | 7.8% | 9% | 131 km |
| 16 | Hagondange Moselle | 3.1 | 11% | 0% | 317 km |
| 17 | Mont-Saint-Martin Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.9 | 18% | 0% | 274 km |
| 18 | Quincy-sous-Sénart Essonne | 2.8 | 57% | 0% | 174 km |
| 19 | Landivisiau Finistère | 2.8 | 12% | 0.8% | 14 km |
| 20 | Leers Nord | 2.6 | 1.6% | 0% | 64 km |
| 21 | Molsheim Bas-Rhin | 2.5 | 8.8% | 0% | 441 km |
| 22 | Sallaumines Pas-de-Calais | 2.4 | 8.1% | 0% | 77 km |
| 23 | Clermont-l'Hérault Hérault | 2 | 22% | 46% | 32 km |
| 24 | Les Sorinières Loire-Atlantique | 2 | 9.8% | 0% | 37 km |
| 25 | Guichen Ille-et-Vilaine | 1.8 | 11% | 0% | 60 km |
| 26 | Lescar Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 1.6 | 6.6% | 20% | 89 km |
| 27 | Chaponost Rhône | 1.5 | 12% | 0% | 245 km |
| 28 | Belley Ain | 1.4 | 19% | 0% | 261 km |
| 29 | Paray-le-Monial Saône-et-Loire | 1.3 | 20% | 0% | 321 km |
| 30 | Dombasle-sur-Meurthe Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1 | 17% | 0% | 380 km |
| 31 | Luçon Vendée | 0.9 | 1.1% | 100% | 16 km |
| 32 | Nogent-le-Rotrou Eure-et-Loir | 0.8 | 7.9% | 100% | 127 km |
| 33 | Elne Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.8 | 0.2% | 3% | On it |
| 34 | Livron-sur-Drôme Drôme | 0.8 | 11% | 4.3% | 147 km |
| 35 | Albert Somme | 0.8 | 1.1% | 0% | 72 km |
| 36 | L'Isle-Jourdain Gers | 0.7 | 7% | 0% | 173 km |
| 37 | Vallet Loire-Atlantique | 0.6 | 7.8% | 0% | 56 km |
| 38 | Rivesaltes Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.5 | 0.2% | 0% | 13 km |
| 39 | Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu Loire-Atlantique | 0.4 | 4.5% | 44% | 26 km |
| 40 | Petit-Caux Seine-Maritime | 0.3 | 4.6% | 1.1% | On it |
| 41 | Tonneins Lot-et-Garonne | 0.2 | 2.8% | 3.5% | 99 km |
The map
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park or wood. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Green: parks, gardens and woods mapped on OpenStreetMap, named or not.© OpenStreetMap contributors · INPN / PatriNat · IGN
Places to walk
Parks and woods to walk in, in and around Belley
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Forêt de Rothonne leads, at 297 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc Jean-Pierre Camus
Park or garden
0.6 ha0.5 km of path
Centralin the middle of Belley
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Milieux remarquables du Bas Bugey is the nearest protected area, 2.4 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Milieux remarquables du Bas Bugey
2.4 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0%
Designations overlap (a regional park can hold a Natura 2000 site), so the rows don’t add up; the first counts each piece of land once.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
31 km of footpaths and 19 km of hiking routes cross Belley
Paths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, and waymarked hiking routes, mapped on OpenStreetMap inside the commune; woods are mapped forest and woodland, private woods included.
Footpaths
31 km
1.4 km per km²
Hiking routes
19 km
waymarked: 0.8 km per km²
Woodland
19%
about 4.3 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
BelleyAin medianFrance median
Footpaths1.4
Hiking routes0.8
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
BelleyAin medianFrance median
Woodland19%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 57% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 61% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 95% of Belley’s residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
4 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 5918 km
Le lac d'Armaille9.4 km
Parcours ludo-sportif1 km
La chapelle Saint-Anne0.9 km
GR 59 passes within 2 km of Belley.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Belley: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Chambery-Aix, 20 km away, and the daylight at the town’s latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 15 to 30 °C and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 9.0 | 10.3 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 14.9 | 15.7 | 15.4 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.4 | 8.7 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 9 | 13 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 28 | 27 | 22 | 17 | 11 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 103 | 79 | 93 | 88 | 101 | 95 | 92 | 98 | 104 | 113 | 115 | 124 |
February is the driest month (79 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 28 °C). 124 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 66 nights a year. The climate in Belley →
Neighbors
Next to Belley
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
YenneCuloz-BéonLes Avenières Veyrins-ThuellinSaint-Genix-les-VillagesLe Bourget-du-LacLa BiolleBelley
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belley | 0% | 19% | 1.4 |
| Yenne 3,026 · 8.5 km | 19% | 35% | 1.2 |
| Culoz-Béon 3,453 · 13 km | 22% | 57% | 1.8 |
| Les Avenières Veyrins-Thuellin 7,698 · 17 km | 11% | 22% | 0.4 |
| Saint-Genix-les-Villages 3,095 · 18 km | 4.4% | 33% | 1.2 |
| Le Bourget-du-Lac 5,216 · 18 km | 13% | 57% | 2.8 |
| La Biolle 2,948 · 18 km | 5% | 42% | 1.2 |
Yenne, Culoz-Béon and Les Avenières Veyrins-Thuellin have at least twice as much protected land. Yenne, Culoz-Béon and Saint-Genix-les-Villages are more wooded.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Protected areas. National-park cores, national parks’ outer areas, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites, from INPN. A national park’s core is strictly protected; its outer area and a regional park are charters between communes, not bans. Designations overlap, so the total counts each piece of land once.
- Woodland. Forest and woods as OpenStreetMap maps them, private woods included: woods nobody has mapped are missing, and a mapped wood isn’t necessarily open to walkers.
- Footpaths and hiking routes. Footpaths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, then waymarked hiking routes (GR and others) measured apart. A route often follows a path or lane already counted: the two overlap. Paths nobody has mapped are missing.
- Green space nearby. The share of residents (INSEE’s 200 m grid) within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or wood edge. It measures nearness, not a way in. Guadeloupe and French Guiana have no grid: their pages say whether the town center is within 800 m.
- The coast. The straight-line distance from the town center to OpenStreetMap’s coastline, which follows the tide line into estuaries. A commune is on the coast when the coastline crosses its boundary.
- No grade yet. U.S. and UK towns have an Outdoors Grade; French towns don’t yet. Each figure is set beside the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade) in the département and in France, each figure its own median.
Questions about the outdoors in Belley
Is Belley in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Milieux remarquables du Bas Bugey, 2.4 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Belley?
OpenStreetMap maps 31 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.4 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 19 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Belley is woodland?
19% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Belley near the sea?
No: the coast is 261 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Belley?
April to September: long days, mild highs and little rain, from Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at the nearest suitable station.
Why is there no Outdoors Grade for French towns?
TownRatings grades the outdoors in the U.S. and the UK; the French figures are new and not graded yet. This page sets each one beside the median compared French town instead.
Sources: INPN / PatriNat (protected areas 2026, Natura 2000 2024) · © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL (paths, hiking routes, woods, coast, gardens) · INSEE, Filosofi 2021 200 m grid (residents) · IGN Admin Express (boundaries) · Météo-France normals 1991–2020 · Medians and percentiles: TownRatings, over compared French towns, updated November 4, 2026. Under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab).
Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.