First pick
Bois du Mont Tilleul
Wood or forest
26 ha
1.2 km eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Yzergues · CC BY-SA 4.027%of the land protected
Outdoors in Carignan · protected areas, woods and footpaths
27% of Carignan’s land is protected for nature
8 km of footpaths cross Carignan (0.6 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 4% of Carignan. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 5 km in Carignan. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
27%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
4%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
8.3 km
0.6 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.6 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
1
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Bois du Mont Tilleul
Throughout this page, the Ardennes 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 Carignan?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Protected countryside27% of the land lies in protected areas.Few mapped footpaths0.6 km per km², against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.
What sets Carignan apart: its protected countryside. It is shorter on footpaths.
Against French towns
How Carignan 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 areas27%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
81out of 100
Woodland4%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
18out of 100
Footpaths0.6 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
17out of 100
Hiking routes0.3 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
48out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Carignan has the 14th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (2,648 to 2,718 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Guilvinec (6.2 km per km²) to Richebourg (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guilvinec Finistère | 6.2 | 0.8% | 2.7% | On it |
| 2 | Étrembières Haute-Savoie | 4.1 | 32% | 22% | 284 km |
| 3 | Gassin Var | 3.5 | 46% | 0% | On it |
| 4 | La Richardais Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.4 | 9.9% | 100% | On it |
| 5 | Bagnoles de l'Orne Normandie Orne | 3.3 | 39% | 100% | 69 km |
| 6 | Morzine Haute-Savoie | 2.4 | 33% | 36% | 274 km |
| 7 | Roissy-en-France Val-d'Oise | 2.1 | 4.3% | 0% | 144 km |
| 8 | Les Vans Ardèche | 1.8 | 46% | 78% | 94 km |
| 9 | Vinassan Aude | 1.7 | 20% | 65% | 9.2 km |
| 10 | Souchez Pas-de-Calais | 1.7 | 9% | 0% | 75 km |
| 11 | Piriac-sur-Mer Loire-Atlantique | 1.5 | 9.1% | 0.8% | On it |
| 12 | Râches Nord | 1.5 | 25% | 99% | 86 km |
| 13 | Marmoutier Bas-Rhin | 1.3 | 28% | 0% | 423 km |
| 14 | Auboué Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.2 | 21% | 0% | 311 km |
| 15 | Cauffry Oise | 1.2 | 17% | 0% | 110 km |
| 16 | Verlinghem Nord | 1.1 | 6.3% | 0% | 55 km |
| 17 | Vert-le-Petit Essonne | 1.1 | 17% | 11% | 177 km |
| 18 | Villaines-la-Juhel Mayenne | 1 | 0.4% | 0% | 85 km |
| 19 | Masnières Nord | 1 | 4% | 0% | 109 km |
| 20 | Montréjeau Haute-Garonne | 0.9 | 5.7% | 2.6% | 175 km |
| 21 | Bessines-sur-Gartempe Haute-Vienne | 0.9 | 36% | 0.4% | 181 km |
| 22 | Fourques Gard | 0.9 | 1.7% | 4.6% | 28 km |
| 23 | Marpent Nord | 0.7 | 15% | 0% | 133 km |
| 24 | Calenzana Haute-Corse | 0.7 | 12% | 100% | On it |
| 25 | Torcy Saône-et-Loire | 0.7 | 19% | 0% | 359 km |
| 26 | Le Bugue Dordogne | 0.7 | 53% | 5.1% | 120 km |
| 27 | Brienne-le-Château Aube | 0.6 | 40% | 100% | 287 km |
| 28 | Carignan Ardennes | 0.6 | 4% | 27% | 237 km |
| 29 | Caux Hérault | 0.4 | 12% | 0% | 25 km |
| 30 | Montayral Lot-et-Garonne | 0.4 | 10% | 8.3% | 137 km |
| 31 | Cubzac-les-Ponts Gironde | 0.4 | 5.8% | 10% | 12 km |
| 32 | Cadillac-sur-Garonne Gironde | 0.3 | 7.2% | 5.4% | 47 km |
| 33 | Magescq Landes | 0.3 | 77% | 2.4% | 16 km |
| 34 | Chanas Isère | 0.3 | 19% | 0% | 204 km |
| 35 | Criquetot-l'Esneval Seine-Maritime | 0.3 | 1.2% | 0% | 8.3 km |
| 36 | Villefranche-sur-Cher Loir-et-Cher | 0.2 | 60% | 45% | 247 km |
| 37 | Montholon Yonne | 0.2 | 36% | 0% | 279 km |
| 38 | Ailly-sur-Noye Somme | 0.2 | 22% | 0% | 68 km |
| 39 | Essômes-sur-Marne Aisne | 0.2 | 31% | 0% | 176 km |
| 40 | Ouveillan Aude | 0.2 | 1.4% | 0% | 22 km |
| 41 | Richebourg Pas-de-Calais | 0.1 | 0.9% | 0% | 57 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 Carignan
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois du Mont Tilleul leads, at 26 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Carignan
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Confluence des vallées de la Meuse et de la Chiers
27% of the commune0.4 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area27%
Natura 2000 site27%
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.
27% of Carignan’s land is protected, more than in 81% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Ardennes has 36%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
8 km of footpaths cross Carignan
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
8.3 km
0.6 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.6 km
waymarked: 0.3 km per km²
Woodland
4%
about 0.6 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
CarignanArdennes medianFrance median
Footpaths0.6
Hiking routes0.3
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
CarignanArdennes medianFrance median
Woodland4%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 83% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 82% 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 Carignan is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Chemin de Trèves, Villers-devant-Orval (B) - Mouzon (F)12 km
Mon Beau Royaume2 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Carignan: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Linay, 4.1 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) | 8.6 | 10.0 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.3 | 16.3 | 15.9 | 14.4 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 9.0 | 8.1 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 7 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 15 | 10 | 6 |
| Rain (mm) | 104 | 82 | 71 | 58 | 71 | 75 | 74 | 81 | 64 | 82 | 88 | 120 |
April is the driest month (58 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 120 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 74 nights a year. The climate in Carignan →
Neighbors
Next to Carignan
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
SedanVrigne aux BoisVivier-au-CourtCarignan
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carignan | 27% | 4% | 0.6 |
| Sedan 16,667 · 18 km | 0% | 17% | 2 |
| Vrigne aux Bois 3,518 · 25 km | 46% | 60% | 0.7 |
| Vivier-au-Court 2,732 · 27 km | 0% | 24% | 0.4 |
Vrigne aux Bois and Vivier-au-Court 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 Carignan
Is Carignan in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 27% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Carignan?
OpenStreetMap maps 8 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 5 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Carignan is woodland?
4% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Carignan near the sea?
No: the coast is 237 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Carignan?
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 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.