First pick
Parc du Château des Vicomtes
Park or garden
0.4 ha0.3 km of path
Centralin the middle of Saint-Girons
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Olybrius · CC BY-SA 3.0100%of the land protected
Outdoors in Saint-Girons · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Saint-Girons lies inside Pyrénées Ariégeoises Regional Nature Park
Protected areas cover 100% of Saint-Girons’ land. 36% of Saint-Girons is mapped woodland. 29 km of footpaths cross Saint-Girons (1.5 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
100%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
36%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
29 km
1.5 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
7.1 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: Parc du Château des Vicomtes
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.
What kind of place
What kind of outdoors place is Saint-Girons?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Pyrénées Ariégeoises Regional Nature Park100% of the commune is in the regional nature park.A wooded commune36% mapped woodland, more than in 82% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.
What sets Saint-Girons apart: the regional nature park around it, then its woods.
Against French towns
How Saint-Girons 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 areas100%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
99out of 100
Woodland36%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
82out of 100
Footpaths1.5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
47out of 100
Hiking routes0.4 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
52out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Saint-Girons has the 19th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (5,948 to 6,072 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Clapiers (9.8 km per km²) to Saint-Denis-de-Pile (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clapiers Hérault | 9.8 | 42% | 3.1% | 14 km |
| 2 | Ablon-sur-Seine Val-de-Marne | 5.8 | 6.2% | 0% | 165 km |
| 3 | La Verrière Yvelines | 5.3 | 14% | 1.3% | 139 km |
| 4 | Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer Var | 3.9 | 35% | 0% | On it |
| 5 | Villennes-sur-Seine Yvelines | 3.7 | 17% | 0% | 128 km |
| 6 | Noyelles-Godault Pas-de-Calais | 3.5 | 6.9% | 0.2% | 81 km |
| 7 | Roost-Warendin Nord | 2.9 | 22% | 7.5% | 85 km |
| 8 | Bois-le-Roi Seine-et-Marne | 2.8 | 31% | 18% | 199 km |
| 9 | Mondonville Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 27% | 0% | 161 km |
| 10 | Quiévrechain Nord | 2.5 | 13% | 97% | 107 km |
| 11 | Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau Loire-Atlantique | 2.4 | 15% | 29% | 26 km |
| 12 | Trith-Saint-Léger Nord | 2.1 | 6.9% | 0% | 106 km |
| 13 | Lavelanet Ariège | 2 | 40% | 0% | 97 km |
| 14 | Marnaz Haute-Savoie | 2 | 51% | 9.8% | 265 km |
| 15 | Benfeld Bas-Rhin | 2 | 24% | 20% | 460 km |
| 16 | Hombourg-Haut Moselle | 1.9 | 48% | 0% | 357 km |
| 17 | Ciboure Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 1.8 | 30% | 16% | On it |
| 18 | Sains-en-Gohelle Pas-de-Calais | 1.7 | 1.5% | 0% | 70 km |
| 19 | Saint-Girons Ariège | 1.5 | 36% | 100% | 155 km |
| 20 | Jouars-Pontchartrain Yvelines | 1.4 | 20% | 100% | 133 km |
| 21 | Loon-Plage Nord | 1.3 | 2.6% | 0.2% | On it |
| 22 | Le Castellet Var | 1.3 | 18% | 81% | 7.5 km |
| 23 | Mortagne-sur-Sèvre Vendée | 1.3 | 7.8% | 0% | 77 km |
| 24 | Vias Hérault | 1.3 | 5.5% | 44% | On it |
| 25 | Donzère Drôme | 1.2 | 22% | 8.5% | 110 km |
| 26 | Vaison-la-Romaine Vaucluse | 1.2 | 29% | 100% | 90 km |
| 27 | Naintré Vienne | 1.1 | 33% | 0% | 134 km |
| 28 | Pavilly Seine-Maritime | 1 | 21% | 0% | 36 km |
| 29 | Marly-la-Ville Val-d'Oise | 0.9 | 5.5% | 0% | 135 km |
| 30 | Gévezé Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.9 | 4% | 0% | 34 km |
| 31 | Blanzy Saône-et-Loire | 0.8 | 17% | 0% | 349 km |
| 32 | Luc-la-Primaube Aveyron | 0.8 | 7.6% | 0% | 131 km |
| 33 | Condé-en-Normandie Calvados | 0.7 | 8.1% | 18% | 52 km |
| 34 | Corbie Somme | 0.6 | 16% | 4.5% | 66 km |
| 35 | Commentry Allier | 0.5 | 13% | 0% | 288 km |
| 36 | Fontenay-Trésigny Seine-et-Marne | 0.5 | 25% | 0% | 185 km |
| 37 | Aubignan Vaucluse | 0.5 | 3.8% | 42% | 73 km |
| 38 | Bouillargues Gard | 0.5 | 0.8% | 29% | 37 km |
| 39 | Beauvoisin Gard | 0.4 | 7.3% | 46% | 25 km |
| 40 | Vexin-sur-Epte Eure | 0.3 | 16% | 2.2% | 91 km |
| 41 | Saint-Denis-de-Pile Gironde | 0.2 | 11% | 14% | 31 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 Saint-Girons
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc du Château des Vicomtes leads, at 0.4 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 Saint-Girons
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
100% of the commune
Natura 2000 site
Garonne, Ariège, Hers, Salat, Pique et Neste
0.9% of the commune0.1 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area100%
Regional nature park100%
Natura 2000 site0.9%
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.
100% of Saint-Girons’ land is protected, more than in 99% 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
29 km of footpaths and 7 km of hiking routes cross Saint-Girons
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
29 km
1.5 km per km²
Hiking routes
7.1 km
waymarked: 0.4 km per km²
Woodland
36%
about 6.8 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Saint-GironsAriège medianFrance median
Footpaths1.5
Hiking routes0.4
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Saint-GironsAriège medianFrance median
Woodland36%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 53% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more 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 Saint-Girons 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
Grand tour Sourroque5.2 km
Autour de Saint-Lizier4.7 km
Boucle du Pic de la Pène1.6 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Saint-Girons: June to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at St Girons, 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) | 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) | 11 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 23 | 19 | 14 | 11 |
| Rain (mm) | 82 | 69 | 74 | 104 | 107 | 78 | 59 | 67 | 73 | 82 | 99 | 80 |
July is the driest month (59 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 26 °C). 107 mm of rain falls in May, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 49 nights a year. The climate in Saint-Girons →
Neighbors
Next to Saint-Girons
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Montesquieu-VolvestreCazèresSaint-Girons
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Girons | 100% | 36% | 1.5 |
| Montesquieu-Volvestre 3,050 · 26 km | 0% | 22% | 0.1 |
| Cazères 4,854 · 26 km | 11% | 4.1% | 0.4 |
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 Saint-Girons
Is Saint-Girons in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Saint-Girons lies in Pyrénées Ariégeoises Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Saint-Girons?
OpenStreetMap maps 29 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 7 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Saint-Girons is woodland?
36% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Saint-Girons near the sea?
No: the coast is 155 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Saint-Girons?
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.