Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Igmar911 · CC BY-SA 3.0Waymarked hiking routes add up to 8 km in Hirson. Footpaths add up to 60 km across Hirson (1.8 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 66% of Hirson. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Aisne median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Hirson apart: its protected countryside, then its woods.
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.
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (8,367 to 8,557 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From La Grande-Motte (6 km per km²) to Gennes-Val-de-Loire (0.3 km per km²).
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | La Grande-Motte Hérault | 6 | 4% | 53% | On it |
| 2 | Le Plessis-Bouchard Val-d'Oise | 5.8 | 1.2% | 0% | 132 km |
| 3 | Larmor-Plage Morbihan | 5.3 | 17% | 0% | On it |
| 4 | Groslay Val-d'Oise | 4.3 | 15% | 0% | 138 km |
| 5 | La Salvetat-Saint-Gilles Haute-Garonne | 4.3 | 12% | 0% | 158 km |
| 6 | Rouvroy Pas-de-Calais | 3.3 | 5% | 0% | 81 km |
| 7 | Pignan Hérault | 3.2 | 1.7% | 34% | 13 km |
| 8 | Venelles Bouches-du-Rhône | 3 | 41% | 10% | 29 km |
| 9 | Vendin-le-Vieil Pas-de-Calais | 2.7 | 11% | 0% | 72 km |
| 10 | Pérenchies Nord | 2.5 | 0.9% | 0% | 56 km |
| 11 | Trégueux Côtes-d'Armor | 2.4 | 5.5% | 0% | 4.1 km |
| 12 | Varces-Allières-et-Risset Isère | 2.4 | 33% | 32% | 194 km |
| 13 | Sautron Loire-Atlantique | 2.3 | 16% | 0% | 34 km |
| 14 | Ballan-Miré Indre-et-Loire | 2.2 | 30% | 0% | 176 km |
| 15 | Privas Ardèche | 2.1 | 32% | 1.6% | 136 km |
| 16 | Bormes-les-Mimosas Var | 2.1 | 38% | 8.3% | On it |
| 17 | Orchies Nord | 1.9 | 1.7% | 0.7% | 84 km |
| 18 | Bassens Gironde | 1.9 | 0.3% | 10% | 13 km |
| 19 | Pont-l'Abbé Finistère | 1.9 | 13% | 2% | On it |
| 20 | Vif Isère | 1.8 | 48% | 7% | 189 km |
| 21 | Hirson Aisne | 1.8 | 66% | 66% | 167 km |
| 22 | Saint-Claude Jura | 1.7 | 78% | 100% | 318 km |
| 23 | Lillebonne Seine-Maritime | 1.6 | 18% | 0% | 16 km |
| 24 | Uzès Gard | 1.6 | 6.9% | 0% | 57 km |
| 25 | Trignac Loire-Atlantique | 1.5 | 0.1% | 65% | 1.7 km |
| 26 | Unieux Loire | 1.5 | 23% | 16% | 205 km |
| 27 | Saint-Aubin-lès-Elbeuf Seine-Maritime | 1.4 | 4.8% | 0.5% | 50 km |
| 28 | Peymeinade Alpes-Maritimes | 1.4 | 31% | 20% | 13 km |
| 29 | Reignier-Ésery Haute-Savoie | 1.1 | 26% | 3.1% | 279 km |
| 30 | Éguilles Bouches-du-Rhône | 1 | 12% | 54% | 23 km |
| 31 | Theix-Noyalo Morbihan | 0.9 | 11% | 98% | On it |
| 32 | Feurs Loire | 0.8 | 6.8% | 37% | 243 km |
| 33 | Marseillan Hérault | 0.7 | 0.9% | 52% | On it |
| 34 | Talmont-Saint-Hilaire Vendée | 0.6 | 6.9% | 8.5% | On it |
| 35 | Châteauneuf-sur-Loire Loiret | 0.6 | 49% | 22% | 222 km |
| 36 | Le Loroux-Bottereau Loire-Atlantique | 0.6 | 6.4% | 8.8% | 53 km |
| 37 | Saint-Vallier Saône-et-Loire | 0.6 | 19% | 0% | 344 km |
| 38 | Thaon-les-Vosges Vosges | 0.6 | 41% | 0% | 406 km |
| 39 | Chantonnay Vendée | 0.5 | 12% | 0% | 42 km |
| 40 | Onnaing Nord | 0.5 | 16% | 1.1% | 105 km |
| 41 | Gennes-Val-de-Loire Maine-et-Loire | 0.3 | 29% | 100% | 134 km |
Tap a number to zoom to a park or wood. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Forêt domaniale de Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache leads, at 2,911 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
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.
66% of Hirson’s land is protected, more than in 89% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Aisne has 0%. A regional nature park is a charter between communes to look after a landscape: farming, building and hunting go on inside it.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
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.
That is more than in 52% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 97% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. Every home in Hirson is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Fontaine-Les-Vv, 18 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) | 8.5 | 10.0 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.4 | 16.3 | 15.9 | 14.4 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 9.0 | 8.1 |
| High (°C) | 5 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 23 | 19 | 14 | 9 | 6 |
| Rain (mm) | 75 | 62 | 62 | 50 | 63 | 67 | 71 | 81 | 59 | 71 | 74 | 92 |
April is the driest month (50 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). 92 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 50 nights a year. The climate in Hirson →
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
No, but 66% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
OpenStreetMap maps 60 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.8 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 8 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
66% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
No: the coast is 167 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
May to July and September: long days, mild highs and little rain, from Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at the nearest suitable station.
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 9, 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.