First pick
Espace René Anglès
Park or garden
0.3 ha
1.4 km south-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Ptitgonevx · CC BY-SA 3.0100%of the land protected
Outdoors in Gruissan · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Gruissan lies inside Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Regional Nature Park
Protected areas cover 100% of Gruissan’s land. 156 km of footpaths cross Gruissan (2.5 km per km²). Waymarked hiking routes add up to 34 km in Gruissan. 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
13%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
156 km
2.5 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
34 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Green space nearby
93%
of residents within 800 m of a park or wood
Compared town: 100%
The sea
On it
the commune touches the coast, 1.6 km from its center
Throughout this page, the Aude 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 Gruissan?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Regional Nature Park100% of the commune is in the regional nature park.On the coastThe commune touches the sea; the coast is 1.6 km from its center.
What sets Gruissan apart: the regional nature park around it, then the sea.
Against French towns
How Gruissan 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
94out of 100
Woodland13%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
48out of 100
Footpaths2.5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
66out of 100
Hiking routes0.6 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
65out of 100
Green space nearby93%Share of residents within 800 m of a mapped park or wood
11out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Gruissan has the 10th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,978 to 5,086 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Giberville (5.1 km per km²) to Laventie (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giberville Calvados | 5.1 | 3.2% | 0% | 11 km |
| 2 | Villefranche-sur-Mer Alpes-Maritimes | 4.2 | 19% | 26% | On it |
| 3 | Bezannes Marne | 3.4 | 1.8% | 0.1% | 198 km |
| 4 | Ornex Ain | 3.2 | 22% | 0% | 299 km |
| 5 | Saint-Étienne-au-Mont Pas-de-Calais | 2.8 | 35% | 100% | On it |
| 6 | Sommières Gard | 2.8 | 21% | 1.3% | 25 km |
| 7 | Luzarches Val-d'Oise | 2.6 | 47% | 100% | 130 km |
| 8 | Saint-Mathieu-de-Tréviers Hérault | 2.6 | 48% | 66% | 26 km |
| 9 | Châteaulin Finistère | 2.5 | 21% | 100% | On it |
| 10 | Gruissan Aude | 2.5 | 13% | 100% | On it |
| 11 | Haillicourt Pas-de-Calais | 2.5 | 0.2% | 0% | 63 km |
| 12 | Decazeville Aveyron | 2.2 | 40% | 0% | 168 km |
| 13 | La Mézière Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.1 | 7.5% | 0% | 36 km |
| 14 | Bonnières-sur-Seine Yvelines | 2.1 | 45% | 20% | 99 km |
| 15 | Hauts de Bienne Jura | 1.9 | 77% | 100% | 326 km |
| 16 | Champagne-sur-Oise Val-d'Oise | 1.8 | 33% | 54% | 119 km |
| 17 | Baden Morbihan | 1.8 | 15% | 100% | On it |
| 18 | Lorette Loire | 1.8 | 13% | 0.2% | 220 km |
| 19 | Bousbecque Nord | 1.5 | 1.4% | 0% | 49 km |
| 20 | Yffiniac Côtes-d'Armor | 1.5 | 4.4% | 0.1% | 1.8 km |
| 21 | Mamers Sarthe | 1.4 | 0.9% | 0.1% | 110 km |
| 22 | La Ferté Macé Orne | 1.4 | 27% | 100% | 73 km |
| 23 | Petite-Forêt Nord | 1.3 | 1.8% | 1.4% | 102 km |
| 24 | Villefranche-de-Lauragais Haute-Garonne | 1.2 | 0.5% | 0% | 117 km |
| 25 | Plouigneau Finistère | 1.1 | 19% | 12% | 9 km |
| 26 | Cilaos Réunion | 1.1 | 43% | 100% | 18 km |
| 27 | La Souterraine Creuse | 1.1 | 18% | 0% | 193 km |
| 28 | Le Fenouiller Vendée | 1 | 4.1% | 9.9% | 3.5 km |
| 29 | Luynes Indre-et-Loire | 0.8 | 39% | 3.5% | 176 km |
| 30 | Blaye Gironde | 0.7 | 2.7% | 58% | On it |
| 31 | Habsheim Haut-Rhin | 0.7 | 49% | 50% | 438 km |
| 32 | Saint-Sever Landes | 0.6 | 17% | 4.2% | 67 km |
| 33 | Pacy-sur-Eure Eure | 0.6 | 45% | 3.1% | 88 km |
| 34 | Lestrem Pas-de-Calais | 0.5 | 1% | 0% | 52 km |
| 35 | Neuville-aux-Bois Loiret | 0.5 | 19% | 0% | 196 km |
| 36 | Morcenx-la-Nouvelle Landes | 0.4 | 64% | 12% | 34 km |
| 37 | Val d'Erdre-Auxence Maine-et-Loire | 0.3 | 11% | 0% | 97 km |
| 38 | Beaurepaire Isère | 0.3 | 4.5% | 0% | 210 km |
| 39 | Rambervillers Vosges | 0.2 | 38% | 0% | 414 km |
| 40 | Saint-James Manche | 0.2 | 6.3% | 0% | 12 km |
| 41 | Laventie Pas-de-Calais | 0.1 | 0.7% | 0% | 54 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 Gruissan
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Espace René Anglès leads, at 0.3 ha. Directions go to 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 Gruissan 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).
93% within 800 m6.8% further
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
GruissanAude medianFrance median
Within 800 m93%
0%50%100%
About 300 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 Gruissan
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Regional Nature Park
100% of the commune
Nature reserve
Sainte Lucie nature reserve
6.1 km from the town center
Natura 2000 site
Étangs du Narbonnais
61% of the commune0.6 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Complexe lagunaire de Bages-Sigean
56% of the commune1 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Montagne de la Clape
21% of the commune1.2 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Massif de la Clape
21% of the commune1.2 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area100%
Regional nature park100%
Natura 2000 site83%
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 Gruissan’s land is protected, more than in 94% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Aude has 9.6%. A regional nature park is a charter between communes to look after a landscape: farming, building and hunting go on inside it.
All 8 protected areas
Côte languedocienneNatura 2000 site · 1.5 km
Côtes sableuses de l’infralittoral LanguedocienNatura 2000 site · 1.6 km
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
156 km of footpaths and 34 km of hiking routes cross Gruissan
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
156 km
2.5 km per km²
Hiking routes
34 km
waymarked: 0.6 km per km²
Woodland
13%
about 8 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
GruissanAude medianFrance median
Footpaths2.5
Hiking routes0.6
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
GruissanAude medianFrance median
Woodland13%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 66% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 52% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
8 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Sentier du golfe Antique - partie 212 km
La Chapelle des Auzils8 km
La Goutine6.2 km
Tour de l'Étang6.1 km
La Capoulade6 km
Les Goules4.5 km
Sentier du golfe Antique - partie 34.3 km
Sentier du golfe Antique - partie 11.2 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Gruissan: April to June
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Lespignan, 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 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 13.9 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 9.0 |
| High (°C) | 12 | 13 | 17 | 19 | 23 | 27 | 30 | 30 | 26 | 21 | 16 | 13 |
| Rain (mm) | 53 | 51 | 49 | 56 | 46 | 31 | 15 | 27 | 67 | 96 | 66 | 48 |
July is the driest month (15 mm) and the warmest (highs of 30 °C). 96 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 20 nights a year. Summer highs reach 30 °C, too hot for the outline. The climate in Gruissan →
Neighbors
Next to Gruissan
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
VinassanFleuryNarbonnePort-la-NouvelleCoursanSigeanGruissan
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
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 Gruissan
Is Gruissan in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Gruissan lies in Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Gruissan?
OpenStreetMap maps 156 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 34 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Gruissan is woodland?
13% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Gruissan near the sea?
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 1.6 km from its center.
When is the best time for walking in Gruissan?
April to June: 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.