First pick
Parc Hélitas
Park or garden
11 ha2.7 km of path
35 minto walk all 2.7 km of path
0.9 km north-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: VegaLyre · CC BY-SA 4.02.9%woodland
Outdoors in Aurillac · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Aurillac is within 800 m of a park or wood
Mapped woodland covers 2.9% of Aurillac. 79 km of footpaths cross Aurillac (2.7 km per km²). Waymarked hiking routes add up to 12 km in Aurillac. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0.2%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Vallées de la Cère et de la Jordanne, 2.9 km
Woodland
2.9%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
79 km
2.7 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
12 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
10
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc Hélitas
Throughout this page, the Cantal 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 Aurillac?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Protected land nearbyVallées de la Cère et de la Jordanne (Natura 2000) is 2.9 km from the town center.Little mapped woodland2.9% of the land, against 13% for the median compared town.
What sets Aurillac apart: protected land close by. It is shorter on woodland.
Against French towns
How Aurillac 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 areas0.2%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
52out of 100
Woodland2.9%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
14out of 100
Footpaths2.7 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
69out of 100
Hiking routes0.4 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
54out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Aurillac has the 13th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (25,081 to 27,332 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Paris 4e (12.9 km per km²) to Sainte-Suzanne (0.4 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris 4e Paris | 12.9 | 0% | 0% | 150 km |
| 2 | Les Ulis Essonne | 10.9 | 13% | 0.2% | 156 km |
| 3 | Villeneuve-la-Garenne Hauts-de-Seine | 9.8 | 4.2% | 0% | 141 km |
| 4 | Vichy Allier | 8.8 | 1.3% | 12% | 290 km |
| 5 | Grigny Essonne | 8.7 | 7.2% | 0% | 170 km |
| 6 | Élancourt Yvelines | 8.2 | 26% | 3.5% | 138 km |
| 7 | Cormeilles-en-Parisis Val-d'Oise | 7.2 | 14% | 0% | 133 km |
| 8 | Gradignan Gironde | 6.8 | 17% | 0% | 26 km |
| 9 | Sannois Val-d'Oise | 6 | 17% | 0% | 135 km |
| 10 | Armentières Nord | 5.9 | 3.8% | 0% | 50 km |
| 11 | Cenon Gironde | 5.4 | 8.9% | 0% | 18 km |
| 12 | Brunoy Essonne | 5.2 | 18% | 0% | 170 km |
| 13 | Eaubonne Val-d'Oise | 5 | 1.9% | 0% | 134 km |
| 14 | Alençon Orne | 4.8 | 2.3% | 5.5% | 97 km |
| 15 | Lambersart Nord | 4.7 | 3.4% | 0% | 59 km |
| 16 | Lormont Gironde | 4.7 | 12% | 7.4% | 16 km |
| 17 | Castelnau-le-Lez Hérault | 4.6 | 4.5% | 1.2% | 11 km |
| 18 | Miramas Bouches-du-Rhône | 4 | 9.2% | 5.7% | 18 km |
| 19 | Béthune Pas-de-Calais | 4 | 4% | 0% | 60 km |
| 20 | Hénin-Beaumont Pas-de-Calais | 3.8 | 5.6% | 0% | 80 km |
| 21 | La Garde Var | 3.8 | 7.6% | 25% | On it |
| 22 | Biarritz Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 3.5 | 11% | 3.5% | On it |
| 23 | Le Grand-Quevilly Seine-Maritime | 3.4 | 4.9% | 0.1% | 50 km |
| 24 | Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône Val-d'Oise | 3.2 | 7.4% | 0% | 123 km |
| 25 | Vertou Loire-Atlantique | 3.1 | 19% | 0% | 41 km |
| 26 | Sens Yonne | 3.1 | 4.6% | 0% | 249 km |
| 27 | Le Bouscat Gironde | 3 | 1.4% | 0% | 16 km |
| 28 | Brétigny-sur-Orge Essonne | 3 | 9.5% | 0% | 169 km |
| 29 | Aurillac Cantal | 2.7 | 2.9% | 0.2% | 195 km |
| 30 | Vernon Eure | 2.5 | 56% | 3.5% | 90 km |
| 31 | Lunel Hérault | 2.2 | 0.4% | 0.6% | 14 km |
| 32 | Villeparisis Seine-et-Marne | 1.9 | 13% | 0% | 153 km |
| 33 | Saintes Charente-Maritime | 1.9 | 12% | 9.3% | 26 km |
| 34 | Les Pavillons-sous-Bois Seine-Saint-Denis | 1.9 | 0% | 0% | 151 km |
| 35 | Saumur Maine-et-Loire | 1.5 | 15% | 100% | 133 km |
| 36 | Muret Haute-Garonne | 1.5 | 10% | 3.2% | 150 km |
| 37 | Cavaillon Vaucluse | 1.1 | 3.2% | 100% | 45 km |
| 38 | Étampes Essonne | 1 | 12% | 0% | 172 km |
| 39 | Bergerac Dordogne | 1 | 14% | 1.9% | 86 km |
| 40 | Sèvremoine Maine-et-Loire | 0.6 | 5.3% | 0% | 70 km |
| 41 | Sainte-Suzanne Réunion | 0.4 | 31% | 49% | On it |
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 Aurillac
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc Hélitas leads, at 11 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc de la Fraternité
Park or garden
2.5 ha0.3 km of path
0.9 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Jardin des Carmes
Park or garden
0.7 ha0.5 km of path
0.6 km north-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Square Arsène Vermenouze
Park or garden
0.6 ha0.5 km of path
0.9 km north-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Square Bernard Frank
Park or garden
0.8 ha0.3 km of path
1.1 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Jardin du Château Saint-Étienne
Park or garden
0.5 ha0.4 km of path
1.6 km northfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
All 10 named parks, gardens and woods
Parc HélitasPark or garden · 11 ha · 2.7 km of path
DirectionsParc de la FraternitéPark or garden · 2.5 ha · 0.3 km of path
DirectionsTerrain de MarmiersPark or garden · 2.3 ha
DirectionsJardin des CarmesPark or garden · 0.7 ha · 0.5 km of path
DirectionsSquare Arsène VermenouzePark or garden · 0.6 ha · 0.5 km of path
DirectionsSquare Bernard FrankPark or garden · 0.8 ha · 0.3 km of path
DirectionsJardin du Château Saint-ÉtiennePark or garden · 0.5 ha · 0.4 km of path
DirectionsJardins de l'ACARTPark or garden · 0.9 ha
DirectionsEspace Henri MatissePark or garden · 0.3 ha
DirectionsLes berges de la JordanePark or garden · 0.2 ha
DirectionsSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Vallées de la Cère et de la Jordanne is the nearest protected area, 2.9 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Vallées de la Cère et de la Jordanne
2.9 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0.2%
Natura 2000 site0.2%
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.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
79 km of footpaths and 12 km of hiking routes cross Aurillac
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
79 km
2.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
12 km
waymarked: 0.4 km per km²
Woodland
2.9%
about 0.8 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
AurillacCantal medianFrance median
Footpaths2.7
Hiking routes0.4
024 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
AurillacCantal medianFrance median
Woodland2.9%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 69% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 86% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 98% of Aurillac’s residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
A named hiking route within 2 km
Other named walk
Puy de Vaurs8 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Aurillac: May to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Aurillac, 3.6 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) | 9.1 | 10.3 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.8 | 15.6 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.9 | 9.5 | 8.8 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 16 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 90 | 77 | 79 | 109 | 107 | 82 | 71 | 88 | 107 | 101 | 118 | 106 |
July is the driest month (71 mm) and the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 118 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 71 nights a year. The climate in Aurillac →
Neighbors
Next to Aurillac
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Arpajon-sur-CèreYtracAurillac
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aurillac | 0.2% | 2.9% | 2.7 |
| Arpajon-sur-Cère 6,361 · 3.4 km | 0.2% | 24% | 1.2 |
| Ytrac 4,339 · 5.4 km | 0% | 13% | 0.8 |
Arpajon-sur-Cère 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 Aurillac
Is Aurillac in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Vallées de la Cère et de la Jordanne, 2.9 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Aurillac?
OpenStreetMap maps 79 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2.7 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 12 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Aurillac is woodland?
2.9% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Aurillac near the sea?
No: the coast is 195 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Aurillac?
May 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.