First pick
Parc du Chateau du rocher de la Coste
Park or garden
0.7 ha
0.9 km northfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Marianne Casamance · CC BY-SA 3.07%of the land protected
Outdoors in Noves · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Parks, woods and footpaths in Noves
Footpaths add up to 12 km across Noves (0.5 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 5.9% of Noves. Protected areas cover 7% of Noves’ land. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
7%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
5.9%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
12 km
0.5 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Green space nearby
71%
of residents within 800 m of a park or wood
Compared town: 100%
The sea
46 km
from the town center to the coast
Throughout this page, the Bouches-du-Rhône 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 Noves 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 areas7%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
68out of 100
Woodland5.9%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
26out of 100
Footpaths0.5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
12out of 100
Hiking routes0 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
12out of 100
Green space nearby71%Share of residents within 800 m of a mapped park or wood
2out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Noves has the 4th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (6,006 to 6,148 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 Mesnils-sur-Iton (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 | Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux Isère | 5.7 | 52% | 71% | 207 km |
| 3 | Fouquières-lès-Lens Pas-de-Calais | 4.7 | 22% | 0% | 78 km |
| 4 | Le Barcarès Pyrénées-Orientales | 4.4 | 3.4% | 35% | On it |
| 5 | Quint-Fonsegrives Haute-Garonne | 4.4 | 9.5% | 0% | 139 km |
| 6 | Pecquencourt Nord | 4 | 24% | 9.5% | 93 km |
| 7 | Dourges Pas-de-Calais | 3.9 | 11% | 0% | 79 km |
| 8 | Blainville-sur-Orne Calvados | 3.9 | 7.2% | 0% | 7 km |
| 9 | Jonage Rhône | 3.6 | 16% | 33% | 260 km |
| 10 | Palavas-les-Flots Hérault | 3.6 | 0% | 72% | On it |
| 11 | Mutzig Bas-Rhin | 3.4 | 44% | 0% | 439 km |
| 12 | Ostricourt Nord | 3.2 | 34% | 0% | 78 km |
| 13 | Esbly Seine-et-Marne | 3 | 12% | 0% | 164 km |
| 14 | Bois-le-Roi Seine-et-Marne | 2.8 | 31% | 18% | 199 km |
| 15 | Mondonville Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 27% | 0% | 161 km |
| 16 | Prades Pyrénées-Orientales | 2.7 | 33% | 0.3% | 50 km |
| 17 | Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau Loire-Atlantique | 2.4 | 15% | 29% | 26 km |
| 18 | Trith-Saint-Léger Nord | 2.1 | 6.9% | 0% | 106 km |
| 19 | Haute-Goulaine Loire-Atlantique | 1.6 | 12% | 31% | 46 km |
| 20 | Hersin-Coupigny Pas-de-Calais | 1.6 | 15% | 0% | 68 km |
| 21 | Pierrefeu-du-Var Var | 1.6 | 24% | 28% | 13 km |
| 22 | Saint-Girons Ariège | 1.5 | 36% | 100% | 155 km |
| 23 | Jouars-Pontchartrain Yvelines | 1.4 | 20% | 100% | 133 km |
| 24 | Le Castellet Var | 1.3 | 18% | 81% | 7.5 km |
| 25 | Mortagne-sur-Sèvre Vendée | 1.3 | 7.8% | 0% | 77 km |
| 26 | Sainte-Sigolène Haute-Loire | 1.3 | 40% | 1.3% | 188 km |
| 27 | Vendenheim Bas-Rhin | 1.3 | 21% | 0% | 443 km |
| 28 | Donzère Drôme | 1.2 | 22% | 8.5% | 110 km |
| 29 | Vaison-la-Romaine Vaucluse | 1.2 | 29% | 100% | 90 km |
| 30 | Pavilly Seine-Maritime | 1 | 21% | 0% | 36 km |
| 31 | Marly-la-Ville Val-d'Oise | 0.9 | 5.5% | 0% | 135 km |
| 32 | Gévezé Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.9 | 4% | 0% | 34 km |
| 33 | Saint-Cannat Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.8 | 21% | 34% | 29 km |
| 34 | Luc-la-Primaube Aveyron | 0.8 | 7.6% | 0% | 131 km |
| 35 | Maule Yvelines | 0.7 | 15% | 0% | 124 km |
| 36 | Commentry Allier | 0.5 | 13% | 0% | 288 km |
| 37 | Bouillargues Gard | 0.5 | 0.8% | 29% | 37 km |
| 38 | Noves Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.5 | 5.9% | 7% | 46 km |
| 39 | Beauvoisin Gard | 0.4 | 7.3% | 46% | 25 km |
| 40 | Vexin-sur-Epte Eure | 0.3 | 16% | 2.2% | 91 km |
| 41 | Mesnils-sur-Iton Eure | 0.2 | 13% | 0% | 82 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 Noves
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc du Chateau du rocher de la Coste leads, at 0.7 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Close to home
7 in 10 residents of Noves 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).
71% within 800 m29% further
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
NovesBouches-du-Rhône medianFrance median
Within 800 m71%
0%50%100%
About 1,800 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
7% of Noves 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
Alpilles Regional Nature Park
5 km from the town center
Natura 2000 site
La Durance
7% of the commune1.5 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
La Durance
7% of the commune1.5 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Les Alpilles
5 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area7%
Natura 2000 site7%
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.
7% of Noves’ land is protected, more than in 68% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Bouches-du-Rhône has 27%. 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
12 km of footpaths cross Noves
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
12 km
0.5 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 km
waymarked: 0 km per km²
Woodland
5.9%
about 1.6 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
NovesBouches-du-Rhône medianFrance median
Footpaths0.5
Hiking routes0
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
NovesBouches-du-Rhône medianFrance median
Woodland5.9%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 88% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less 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.
A named hiking route within 2 km
Other named walk
Sentier botanique de Garance1 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Noves: April to June
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Avignon, 4.8 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) | 9.2 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.7 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 8.9 |
| High (°C) | 11 | 12 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 29 | 32 | 31 | 26 | 21 | 15 | 11 |
| Rain (mm) | 56 | 36 | 36 | 60 | 52 | 35 | 24 | 35 | 91 | 89 | 92 | 44 |
July is the driest month (24 mm) and the warmest (highs of 32 °C). 92 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 35 nights a year. Summer highs reach 32 °C, too hot for the outline. The climate in Noves →
Neighbors
Next to Noves
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
CabannesChâteaurenardCaumont-sur-DuranceSaint-AndiolEyraguesChâteauneuf-de-GadagneNoves
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noves | 7% | 5.9% | 0.5 | 46 km |
| Cabannes 4,595 · 4.2 km | 14% | 1.5% | 0.3 | 46 km |
| Châteaurenard 16,545 · 4.3 km | 8.3% | 2.1% | 0.8 | 47 km |
| Caumont-sur-Durance 5,667 · 5 km | 18% | 16% | 1.4 | 50 km |
| Saint-Andiol 3,353 · 5.2 km | 0% | 0% | 0.5 | 43 km |
| Eyragues 4,298 · 5.6 km | 0% | 0.4% | 0.5 | 43 km |
| Châteauneuf-de-Gadagne 3,565 · 7.5 km | 4.2% | 9.9% | 2 | 53 km |
Cabannes and Caumont-sur-Durance have at least twice as much protected land.
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 Noves
Is Noves in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 7% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Noves?
OpenStreetMap maps 12 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²).
How much of Noves is woodland?
5.9% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Noves near the sea?
No: the coast is 46 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Noves?
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.