First pick
Forêt d'Hipsheim
Wood or forest
114 ha5.2 km of path
1 h 10 minto walk all 5.2 km of path
2.7 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Gilles Maussion · CC BY-SA 4.019%of the land protected
Outdoors in Eschau · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Eschau is within 800 m of a park or wood
Eschau has 10 km of waymarked hiking routes. Protected areas cover 19% of Eschau’s land. Footpaths add up to 23 km across Eschau (2 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
19%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
11%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
23 km
2 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.6 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
3
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Forêt d'Hipsheim
Throughout this page, the Bas-Rhin 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 Eschau 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 areas19%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
77out of 100
Woodland11%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
44out of 100
Footpaths2 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
56out of 100
Hiking routes0.8 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
77out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Eschau has the 17th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (5,829 to 5,929 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Grand-Charmont (5.8 km per km²) to Lesparre-Médoc (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grand-Charmont Doubs | 5.8 | 39% | 0% | 420 km |
| 2 | Chambourcy Yvelines | 4.7 | 37% | 0% | 133 km |
| 3 | Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines Yvelines | 3.7 | 50% | 0.1% | 150 km |
| 4 | Boé Lot-et-Garonne | 3.2 | 2.6% | 4.3% | 135 km |
| 5 | Saintry-sur-Seine Essonne | 3.1 | 21% | 0% | 180 km |
| 6 | Oberhausbergen Bas-Rhin | 3.1 | 6.2% | 0% | 446 km |
| 7 | Douvrin Pas-de-Calais | 3.1 | 8.1% | 0% | 67 km |
| 8 | Tain-l'Hermitage Drôme | 3.1 | 0.9% | 0% | 179 km |
| 9 | Ludres Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.9 | 24% | 0% | 369 km |
| 10 | Seloncourt Doubs | 2.8 | 36% | 0% | 412 km |
| 11 | Saint-Zacharie Var | 2.7 | 42% | 100% | 22 km |
| 12 | Riantec Morbihan | 2.6 | 27% | 7% | On it |
| 13 | Villabé Essonne | 2.6 | 22% | 0% | 179 km |
| 14 | Raon-l'Étape Vosges | 2.4 | 69% | 2% | 421 km |
| 15 | Garéoult Var | 2.2 | 30% | 51% | 26 km |
| 16 | Saint-Pierre-d'Irube Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 2 | 27% | 13% | 8.6 km |
| 17 | Eschau Bas-Rhin | 2 | 11% | 19% | 457 km |
| 18 | Ventabren Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.9 | 8% | 45% | 20 km |
| 19 | Dol-de-Bretagne Ille-et-Vilaine | 1.9 | 6.8% | 0% | 6.4 km |
| 20 | Arradon Morbihan | 1.8 | 16% | 100% | On it |
| 21 | Port-la-Nouvelle Aude | 1.6 | 5.2% | 82% | On it |
| 22 | Saint-André-de-la-Roche Alpes-Maritimes | 1.6 | 28% | 0% | 4.4 km |
| 23 | La Wantzenau Bas-Rhin | 1.5 | 27% | 41% | 449 km |
| 24 | Cessy Ain | 1.5 | 5.4% | 0.2% | 304 km |
| 25 | Gond-Pontouvre Charente | 1.4 | 15% | 16% | 77 km |
| 26 | Fontenilles Haute-Garonne | 1.4 | 13% | 0% | 163 km |
| 27 | Kembs Haut-Rhin | 1.1 | 50% | 63% | 431 km |
| 28 | Aixe-sur-Vienne Haute-Vienne | 1 | 12% | 0% | 153 km |
| 29 | Grand-Champ Morbihan | 0.9 | 17% | 0% | 11 km |
| 30 | Roye Somme | 0.8 | 3.5% | 0% | 96 km |
| 31 | Saint-Martin-lez-Tatinghem Pas-de-Calais | 0.7 | 0.3% | 100% | 27 km |
| 32 | Saint-Galmier Loire | 0.7 | 13% | 0% | 227 km |
| 33 | Bessan Hérault | 0.6 | 3.4% | 39% | 8.1 km |
| 34 | Le Poinçonnet Indre | 0.5 | 66% | 0% | 224 km |
| 35 | Bellevigne-en-Layon Maine-et-Loire | 0.4 | 14% | 0.1% | 113 km |
| 36 | Bricquebec-en-Cotentin Manche | 0.4 | 13% | 0% | 13 km |
| 37 | Fismes Marne | 0.4 | 21% | 0% | 174 km |
| 38 | Nègrepelisse Tarn-et-Garonne | 0.2 | 13% | 1% | 167 km |
| 39 | Montpon-Ménestérol Dordogne | 0.2 | 37% | 12% | 59 km |
| 40 | Rabastens Tarn | 0.2 | 4.3% | 0.1% | 139 km |
| 41 | Lesparre-Médoc Gironde | 0.1 | 58% | 100% | 11 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 Eschau
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Forêt d'Hipsheim leads, at 114 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Langensand
Wood or forest · 170 m outside the commune
7.5 ha1.1 km of path
15 minto walk all 1.1 km of path
2.8 km south-eastfrom the center
Parcours de Santé
Directionsto a point inside
Cœur de vie
Park or garden
0.4 ha0.3 km of path
Centralin the middle of Eschau
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
19% of Eschau lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Vallée du Rhin de Strasbourg à Marckolsheim
17% of the commune2.5 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Secteur Alluvial Rhin-Ried-Bruch, Bas-Rhin
14% of the commune1.6 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area19%
Natura 2000 site19%
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.
19% of Eschau’s land is protected, more than in 77% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Bas-Rhin has 0.1%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
23 km of footpaths and 10 km of hiking routes cross Eschau
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
23 km
2 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.6 km
waymarked: 0.8 km per km²
Woodland
11%
about 1.3 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
EschauBas-Rhin medianFrance median
Footpaths2
Hiking routes0.8
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
EschauBas-Rhin medianFrance median
Woodland11%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 56% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 56% 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 Eschau is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
6 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Sentier de l'Ill12 km
Sentier Au Fil de l'Eau6.3 km
Sentier du Langensand4.7 km
Santier du Rhinland3.3 km
Chemin Kunesand3 km
Sentier Botanique et de Découverte de la Nature1.9 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Eschau: April, August and September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Strasbourg-Entzheim, 9.2 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) | 8.7 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.2 | 16.1 | 15.7 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.1 | 8.3 |
| High (°C) | 5 | 7 | 12 | 17 | 21 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 22 | 16 | 9 | 6 |
| Rain (mm) | 35 | 34 | 39 | 42 | 77 | 69 | 72 | 61 | 55 | 60 | 48 | 45 |
February is the driest month (34 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 26 °C). 77 mm of rain falls in May, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 60 nights a year. The climate in Eschau →
Neighbors
Next to Eschau
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
PlobsheimFegersheimLipsheimIllkirch-GraffenstadenGeispolsheimOstwaldEschau
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eschau | 19% | 11% | 2 |
| Plobsheim 4,492 · 2 km | 31% | 10% | 1.1 |
| Fegersheim 5,780 · 2.1 km | 0% | 8.4% | 2 |
| Lipsheim 2,702 · 3.9 km | 0.5% | 15% | 0.8 |
| Illkirch-Graffenstaden 27,872 · 4.8 km | 26% | 30% | 3.9 |
| Geispolsheim 7,919 · 5.8 km | 0.5% | 17% | 1.1 |
| Ostwald 13,946 · 7 km | 0% | 10% | 4 |
Illkirch-Graffenstaden 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 Eschau
Is Eschau in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 19% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Eschau?
OpenStreetMap maps 23 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 10 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Eschau is woodland?
11% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Eschau near the sea?
No: the coast is 457 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Eschau?
April, August and 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.