First pick
Parc de Bouychères
Park or garden
4.5 ha1.7 km of path
20 minto walk all 1.7 km of path
0.8 km south-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Jcb-caz-11 · CC BY-SA 4.021%of the land protected
Outdoors in Foix · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Foix is within 800 m of a park or wood
Mapped woodland covers 28% of Foix. 21% of Foix’s land lies in protected areas. 42 km of footpaths cross Foix (2.2 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
21%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
28%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
42 km
2.2 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.2 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
2
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc de Bouychères
Throughout this page, the Ariège median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
Against French towns
How Foix 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 areas21%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
79out of 100
Woodland28%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
74out of 100
Footpaths2.2 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
61out of 100
Hiking routes0.5 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
59out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Foix has the 18th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (9,766 to 10,102 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Maxéville (5.5 km per km²) to Saint-Loubès (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maxéville Meurthe-et-Moselle | 5.5 | 24% | 0% | 363 km |
| 2 | Saint-Max Meurthe-et-Moselle | 5.1 | 4.9% | 0.3% | 366 km |
| 3 | Villerupt Meurthe-et-Moselle | 4.2 | 30% | 0% | 288 km |
| 4 | Beauchamp Val-d'Oise | 4.2 | 12% | 0% | 129 km |
| 5 | Saint-Grégoire Ille-et-Vilaine | 4.2 | 5% | 0% | 44 km |
| 6 | Montlhéry Essonne | 4.1 | 9.8% | 0% | 165 km |
| 7 | Méry-sur-Oise Val-d'Oise | 3.6 | 35% | 0% | 124 km |
| 8 | Grigny-sur-Rhône Rhône | 3.5 | 16% | 0% | 234 km |
| 9 | Le Rheu Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.4 | 5.5% | 0% | 46 km |
| 10 | Soyaux Charente | 3.3 | 35% | 9% | 78 km |
| 11 | Frouzins Haute-Garonne | 3.3 | 7.7% | 11% | 152 km |
| 12 | Voreppe Isère | 3.3 | 42% | 35% | 213 km |
| 13 | Auchel Pas-de-Calais | 3.1 | 8.6% | 0% | 55 km |
| 14 | Portet-sur-Garonne Haute-Garonne | 3 | 9.8% | 15% | 146 km |
| 15 | Grand-Couronne Seine-Maritime | 2.9 | 42% | 0.2% | 48 km |
| 16 | Neuville-en-Ferrain Nord | 2.4 | 5.6% | 0% | 54 km |
| 17 | Ézanville Val-d'Oise | 2.2 | 0.7% | 0% | 134 km |
| 18 | Foix Ariège | 2.2 | 28% | 21% | 117 km |
| 19 | Figeac Lot | 2.1 | 27% | 0% | 182 km |
| 20 | Fillière Haute-Savoie | 2.1 | 49% | 20% | 266 km |
| 21 | Pont-Audemer Eure | 1.8 | 20% | 65% | 15 km |
| 22 | Roche-la-Molière Loire | 1.8 | 8.5% | 0% | 209 km |
| 23 | Ingré Loiret | 1.8 | 11% | 0% | 200 km |
| 24 | Saint-Pierre-du-Mont Landes | 1.5 | 58% | 3.4% | 69 km |
| 25 | Léguevin Haute-Garonne | 1.5 | 14% | 0% | 161 km |
| 26 | Saint-Lys Haute-Garonne | 1.5 | 9.5% | 0% | 162 km |
| 27 | Aniche Nord | 1.4 | 6.8% | 0.1% | 98 km |
| 28 | Lambesc Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.3 | 32% | 65% | 33 km |
| 29 | Saint-Amand-Montrond Cher | 1.3 | 10% | 6.4% | 282 km |
| 30 | Chambly Oise | 1.2 | 5.4% | 0.1% | 117 km |
| 31 | Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.2 | 0.1% | 45% | 3.8 km |
| 32 | Mazamet Tarn | 1.2 | 77% | 0.1% | 74 km |
| 33 | La Farlède Var | 1.1 | 8.7% | 15% | 7.4 km |
| 34 | Merville Nord | 1 | 2% | 0% | 48 km |
| 35 | Bourg-de-Péage Drôme | 0.9 | 0.4% | 0% | 176 km |
| 36 | Lançon-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.7 | 2.7% | 80% | 23 km |
| 37 | Loudéac Côtes-d'Armor | 0.7 | 14% | 0% | 35 km |
| 38 | Lorgues Var | 0.6 | 53% | 6.3% | 30 km |
| 39 | Mézidon Vallée d'Auge Calvados | 0.5 | 8.1% | 0% | 24 km |
| 40 | Carmaux Tarn | 0.4 | 3.3% | 0% | 127 km |
| 41 | Saint-Loubès Gironde | 0.2 | 4% | 28% | 16 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 Foix
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc de Bouychères leads, at 4.5 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
La Passéjade
Park or garden
0.2 ha0.2 km of path
Centralin the middle of Foix
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
21% of Foix lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Pyrénées Ariégeoises Regional Nature Park
1.6 km from the town center
Natura 2000 site
Pechs de Foix, Soula et Roquefixade, grotte de l’Herm
20% of the commune0.5 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Garonne, Ariège, Hers, Salat, Pique et Neste
1.3% of the commune0.3 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area21%
Regional nature park0.1%
Natura 2000 site21%
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.
21% of Foix’s land is protected, more than in 79% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Ariège has 1.5%. 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.
Footpaths and woods
42 km of footpaths and 9 km of hiking routes cross Foix
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
42 km
2.2 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.2 km
waymarked: 0.5 km per km²
Woodland
28%
about 5.5 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
FoixAriège medianFrance median
Footpaths2.2
Hiking routes0.5
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
FoixAriège medianFrance median
Woodland28%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 61% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 74% 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 Foix is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
3 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Tour de La Barguillère7.7 km
SC 12 : Roquefixade - Foix5.8 km
Un chemin, une école® Cadirac Foix - 2024 "La Montagne en Ville"5.7 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Foix: June to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at La Bastide de S, 19 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) | 9.3 | 10.5 | 11.8 | 13.3 | 14.6 | 15.3 | 15.0 | 13.9 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.7 | 9.0 |
| High (°C) | 10 | 11 | 15 | 17 | 21 | 24 | 26 | 27 | 23 | 20 | 14 | 11 |
| Rain (mm) | 91 | 79 | 76 | 111 | 120 | 96 | 72 | 79 | 80 | 90 | 110 | 88 |
July is the driest month (72 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 27 °C). 120 mm of rain falls in May, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 85 nights a year. The climate in Foix →
Neighbors
Next to Foix
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
VarilhesTarascon-sur-AriègeSaint-Jean-du-FalgaLa Tour-du-CrieuPamiersLavelanetFoix
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foix | 21% | 28% | 2.2 |
| Varilhes 3,487 · 9.7 km | 2.6% | 17% | 0.6 |
| Tarascon-sur-Ariège 3,085 · 13 km | 1.5% | 48% | 3 |
| Saint-Jean-du-Falga 2,851 · 14 km | 2.2% | 3.1% | 1.2 |
| La Tour-du-Crieu 3,230 · 16 km | 0% | 0% | 0.4 |
| Pamiers 16,473 · 17 km | 1.1% | 16% | 0.6 |
| Lavelanet 5,987 · 20 km | 0% | 40% | 2 |
Tarascon-sur-Ariège is 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 Foix
Is Foix in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 21% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Foix?
OpenStreetMap maps 42 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2.2 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 9 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Foix is woodland?
28% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Foix near the sea?
No: the coast is 117 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Foix?
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 October 30, 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.