First pick
Bois des Gouttes
Wood or forest
151 ha
6.7 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
53%of the land protected
Outdoors in Beaulon · protected areas, woods and footpaths
53% of Beaulon’s land is protected for nature
11 km of footpaths cross Beaulon (0.2 km per km²). 11% of Beaulon is mapped woodland. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
53%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
11%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
11 km
0.2 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
0.1 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Green space nearby
87%
of residents within 800 m of a park or wood
Compared town: 100%
Throughout this page, the Allier 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 Beaulon?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Protected countryside53% of the land lies in protected areas.Few mapped footpaths0.2 km per km², against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.
What sets Beaulon apart: its protected countryside. It is shorter on footpaths.
Against French towns
How Beaulon 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 areas53%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
87out of 100
Woodland11%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
42out of 100
Footpaths0.2 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
2out of 100
Hiking routes0 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
24out of 100
Green space nearby87%Share of residents within 800 m of a mapped park or wood
6out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Beaulon has the 6th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (1,649 to 2,582 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From École-Valentin (3.9 km per km²) to Bouligny (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | École-Valentin Doubs | 3.9 | 16% | 0% | 405 km |
| 2 | Sainte-Foy-la-Grande Gironde | 3.7 | 0% | 8.7% | 66 km |
| 3 | Mers-les-Bains Somme | 3.5 | 10% | 100% | On it |
| 4 | Villejust Essonne | 2.4 | 4.4% | 0% | 160 km |
| 5 | Sainte-Feyre Creuse | 2.1 | 30% | 0% | 222 km |
| 6 | Camiers Pas-de-Calais | 2 | 30% | 32% | On it |
| 7 | Sain-Bel Rhône | 1.9 | 12% | 0% | 253 km |
| 8 | La Rivière-Saint-Sauveur Calvados | 1.8 | 14% | 29% | On it |
| 9 | Fareins Ain | 1.8 | 8.8% | 0.1% | 279 km |
| 10 | Entzheim Bas-Rhin | 1.7 | 1.5% | 0% | 449 km |
| 11 | Mornas Vaucluse | 1.5 | 35% | 5% | 84 km |
| 12 | Watten Nord | 1.4 | 24% | 100% | 18 km |
| 13 | Rantigny Oise | 1.4 | 18% | 0% | 109 km |
| 14 | Beautor Aisne | 1.3 | 3.6% | 40% | 133 km |
| 15 | Conques-sur-Orbiel Aude | 1.3 | 8.1% | 0% | 60 km |
| 16 | Barcelonnette Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 1.3 | 46% | 100% | 91 km |
| 17 | Granges-Aumontzey Vosges | 1.1 | 70% | 90% | 436 km |
| 18 | Cattenom Moselle | 1.1 | 37% | 0% | 308 km |
| 19 | Prayssac Lot | 1 | 42% | 0% | 151 km |
| 20 | Chatte Isère | 0.7 | 24% | 0% | 190 km |
| 21 | Arelaune-en-Seine Seine-Maritime | 0.7 | 69% | 100% | 29 km |
| 22 | La Croix-en-Touraine Indre-et-Loire | 0.7 | 24% | 0% | 199 km |
| 23 | Criel-sur-Mer Seine-Maritime | 0.7 | 4.9% | 7% | On it |
| 24 | Lusignan Vienne | 0.7 | 17% | 0% | 97 km |
| 25 | Avelin Nord | 0.6 | 6.1% | 0% | 72 km |
| 26 | Civray Vienne | 0.5 | 19% | 0% | 101 km |
| 27 | Le Cailar Gard | 0.4 | 2% | 68% | 17 km |
| 28 | Vervins Aisne | 0.4 | 1.1% | 0% | 164 km |
| 29 | Port-Sainte-Foy-et-Ponchapt Dordogne | 0.4 | 13% | 2.1% | 65 km |
| 30 | Frans Ain | 0.4 | 4% | 0% | 275 km |
| 31 | Toucy Yonne | 0.4 | 24% | 0% | 288 km |
| 32 | Auxi-le-Château Pas-de-Calais | 0.3 | 25% | 1% | 31 km |
| 33 | Vivy Maine-et-Loire | 0.3 | 15% | 100% | 140 km |
| 34 | Nogent-sur-Vernisson Loiret | 0.2 | 46% | 0.3% | 249 km |
| 35 | Eymet Dordogne | 0.2 | 8.6% | 0.4% | 86 km |
| 36 | Beaulon Allier | 0.2 | 11% | 53% | 339 km |
| 37 | Athies-sous-Laon Aisne | 0.2 | 8.9% | 0% | 159 km |
| 38 | Val-de-Scie Seine-Maritime | 0.1 | 18% | 0% | 23 km |
| 39 | Noyen-sur-Sarthe Sarthe | 0.1 | 28% | 0% | 126 km |
| 40 | Chalamont Ain | 0.1 | 20% | 69% | 284 km |
| 41 | Bouligny Meuse | 0.1 | 8.4% | 0% | 293 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 Beaulon
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois des Gouttes leads, at 151 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Les Zadères
Wood or forest · 120 m outside the commune
23 ha
4.1 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Close to home
9 in 10 residents of Beaulon live within 800 m of a park or wood
Each square is 1 resident in 100: in green, those within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or woodland edge (INSEE’s 200 m population grid against OpenStreetMap).
87% within 800 m13% further
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
BeaulonAllier medianFrance median
Within 800 m87%
0%50%100%
About 200 residents live further away. The distance is a straight line to the edge of a mapped park or wood, not a walk to a gate, and a wood can be private.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Beaulon
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Sologne bourbonnaise
43% of the commune0.9 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Val de Loire bocager
10% of the commune1.6 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Val de Loire bocager
4.8% of the commune2.7 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area53%
Natura 2000 site53%
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.
53% of Beaulon’s land is protected, more than in 87% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Allier has 3%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
11 km of footpaths cross Beaulon
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
11 km
0.2 km per km²
Hiking routes
0.1 km
waymarked: 0 km per km²
Woodland
11%
about 6.7 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
BeaulonAllier medianFrance median
Footpaths0.2
Hiking routes0
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
BeaulonAllier medianFrance median
Woodland11%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 98% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 58% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Beaulon: April and June to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Diou, 6.6 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) | 8.9 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 15.0 | 15.8 | 15.5 | 14.2 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.3 | 8.6 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 9 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 27 | 23 | 17 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 64 | 53 | 52 | 68 | 84 | 69 | 65 | 68 | 66 | 78 | 84 | 69 |
March is the driest month (52 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 27 °C). 84 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 54 nights a year. The climate in Beaulon →
Neighbors
Next to Beaulon
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Bourbon-LancyDompierre-sur-BesbreYzeureMoulinsAvermesDigoinBeaulon
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beaulon | 53% | 11% | 0.2 |
| Bourbon-Lancy 4,674 · 7.6 km | 13% | 21% | 0.7 |
| Dompierre-sur-Besbre 2,959 · 8.4 km | 46% | 13% | 0.3 |
| Yzeure 12,897 · 25 km | 0% | 25% | 1.3 |
| Moulins 19,206 · 26 km | 11% | 3.3% | 6.1 |
| Avermes 4,074 · 27 km | 13% | 4.2% | 1.2 |
| Digoin 7,353 · 28 km | 6.1% | 12% | 0.8 |
Bourbon-Lancy and Yzeure 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 Beaulon
Is Beaulon in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 53% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Beaulon?
OpenStreetMap maps 11 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.2 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²).
How much of Beaulon is woodland?
11% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Beaulon near the sea?
No: the coast is 339 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Beaulon?
April and June 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.