Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Chatsam · CC BY-SA 3.0Mapped woodland covers 55% of Saint-Michel. 143 km of footpaths cross Saint-Michel (3.4 km per km²). Saint-Michel has 21 km of waymarked hiking routes. 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 Saint-Michel 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 (3,179 to 3,219 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Fonbeauzard (4.4 km per km²) to Illiers-Combray (0.3 km per km²).
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fonbeauzard Haute-Garonne | 4.4 | 10% | 0% | 151 km |
| 2 | Saint-Michel Aisne | 3.4 | 55% | 62% | 170 km |
| 3 | Gagnac-sur-Garonne Haute-Garonne | 3 | 15% | 38% | 156 km |
| 4 | Ville-di-Pietrabugno Haute-Corse | 2.7 | 25% | 0% | On it |
| 5 | Saint-Michel Charente | 2.3 | 12% | 3.2% | 71 km |
| 6 | Saint-Gervais-la-Forêt Loir-et-Cher | 2.2 | 63% | 0% | 220 km |
| 7 | Lissieu Rhône | 2 | 19% | 0% | 260 km |
| 8 | Dolus-d'Oléron Charente-Maritime | 1.9 | 31% | 40% | On it |
| 9 | Knutange Moselle | 1.9 | 64% | 0% | 303 km |
| 10 | Fretin Nord | 1.8 | 3.1% | 0% | 72 km |
| 11 | Montagny Rhône | 1.7 | 25% | 0% | 235 km |
| 12 | Proville Nord | 1.6 | 15% | 9.5% | 109 km |
| 13 | Salomé Nord | 1.6 | 3% | 0% | 65 km |
| 14 | Lozanne Rhône | 1.6 | 17% | 0% | 259 km |
| 15 | Châteaugay Puy-de-Dôme | 1.6 | 4.7% | 5.2% | 265 km |
| 16 | Nay Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 1.6 | 14% | 8.5% | 109 km |
| 17 | Fontoy Moselle | 1.5 | 48% | 0% | 300 km |
| 18 | La Machine Nièvre | 1.5 | 65% | 58% | 357 km |
| 19 | Bréviandes Aube | 1.4 | 26% | 0% | 277 km |
| 20 | Rochecorbon Indre-et-Loire | 1.3 | 21% | 7.3% | 190 km |
| 21 | Marsac-sur-l'Isle Dordogne | 1.2 | 33% | 0% | 99 km |
| 22 | Davézieux Ardèche | 1.2 | 4.3% | 0% | 195 km |
| 23 | Saint-Paul-de-Vence Alpes-Maritimes | 1.1 | 32% | 0% | 5 km |
| 24 | Saône Doubs | 1.1 | 43% | 28% | 397 km |
| 25 | Druelle Balsac Aveyron | 1.1 | 22% | 0% | 140 km |
| 26 | Veynes Hautes-Alpes | 1.1 | 51% | 63% | 137 km |
| 27 | Breuil-le-Vert Oise | 1 | 31% | 0% | 105 km |
| 28 | Sallèles-d'Aude Aude | 1 | 7.8% | 1.7% | 21 km |
| 29 | La Loupe Eure-et-Loir | 1 | 9.5% | 100% | 118 km |
| 30 | Souillac Lot | 1 | 67% | 6.9% | 163 km |
| 31 | Camblanes-et-Meynac Gironde | 0.9 | 12% | 2.8% | 28 km |
| 32 | Creuzier-le-Vieux Allier | 0.8 | 10% | 3% | 293 km |
| 33 | Saint-Sauveur-Villages Manche | 0.8 | 2% | 35% | 13 km |
| 34 | Meschers-sur-Gironde Charente-Maritime | 0.6 | 7.4% | 60% | On it |
| 35 | Seltz Bas-Rhin | 0.6 | 36% | 57% | 447 km |
| 36 | Imphy Nièvre | 0.6 | 32% | 46% | 343 km |
| 37 | Crêches-sur-Saône Saône-et-Loire | 0.6 | 5.5% | 16% | 303 km |
| 38 | Mayet Sarthe | 0.5 | 38% | 40% | 155 km |
| 39 | Saint-Siméon-de-Bressieux Isère | 0.3 | 15% | 0% | 211 km |
| 40 | Montsûrs Mayenne | 0.3 | 15% | 19% | 80 km |
| 41 | Illiers-Combray Eure-et-Loir | 0.3 | 8.1% | 0% | 142 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.
62% of Saint-Michel’s land is protected, more than in 88% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Aisne has 0%.
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 78% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 94% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 98% of Saint-Michel’s residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Fontaine-Les-Vv, 21 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 Saint-Michel →
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
No, but 62% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
OpenStreetMap maps 143 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.4 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 21 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
55% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
No: the coast is 170 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.