First pick
Square Maurice Montel
Park or garden
0.4 ha
1.5 km eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Mbelhomme1 · CC BY-SA 4.015%of the land protected
Outdoors in Saint-Flour · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Saint-Flour is within 800 m of a park or wood
Footpaths add up to 20 km across Saint-Flour (0.7 km per km²). 15% of Saint-Flour’s land lies in protected areas. 10% of Saint-Flour is mapped woodland. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
15%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
10%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
20 km
0.7 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
11 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: Square Maurice Montel
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.
Against French towns
How Saint-Flour 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 areas15%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
76out of 100
Woodland10%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
41out of 100
Footpaths0.7 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
24out of 100
Hiking routes0.4 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
55out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Saint-Flour has the 11th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (6,311 to 6,472 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From La Tronche (9 km per km²) to Auneau-Bleury-Saint-Symphorien (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | La Tronche Isère | 9 | 46% | 43% | 206 km |
| 2 | Bonsecours Seine-Maritime | 7.5 | 34% | 0% | 55 km |
| 3 | Ambilly Haute-Savoie | 6.6 | 1.9% | 0% | 287 km |
| 4 | Nandy Seine-et-Marne | 5.7 | 64% | 0% | 183 km |
| 5 | Le Mesnil-le-Roi Yvelines | 3.9 | 13% | 0% | 133 km |
| 6 | Vezin-le-Coquet Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.9 | 3.6% | 0% | 45 km |
| 7 | Saint-Laurent-Blangy Pas-de-Calais | 3.8 | 7.9% | 0% | 80 km |
| 8 | Champagne-au-Mont-d'Or Rhône | 3.3 | 15% | 0% | 255 km |
| 9 | Saint-Priest-en-Jarez Loire | 3.3 | 0.6% | 0% | 214 km |
| 10 | Frouard Meurthe-et-Moselle | 3.1 | 59% | 0% | 358 km |
| 11 | Dompierre-sur-Mer Charente-Maritime | 2.8 | 6.2% | 0% | 7 km |
| 12 | Péronnas Ain | 2.7 | 38% | 8.7% | 304 km |
| 13 | Jœuf Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.7 | 33% | 0% | 311 km |
| 14 | Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or Rhône | 2.4 | 21% | 0% | 257 km |
| 15 | Sciez Haute-Savoie | 2.1 | 38% | 4.6% | 297 km |
| 16 | Saint-Jorioz Haute-Savoie | 2 | 50% | 100% | 251 km |
| 17 | Magnanville Yvelines | 1.9 | 17% | 0% | 109 km |
| 18 | Embrun Hautes-Alpes | 1.8 | 37% | 100% | 114 km |
| 19 | Plescop Morbihan | 1.8 | 6.3% | 100% | 4.6 km |
| 20 | Grézieu-la-Varenne Rhône | 1.7 | 9.3% | 0% | 248 km |
| 21 | Cuincy Nord | 1.6 | 13% | 0% | 87 km |
| 22 | Saint-Rémy Saône-et-Loire | 1.5 | 9.7% | 0% | 361 km |
| 23 | Givet Ardennes | 1.5 | 23% | 100% | 179 km |
| 24 | Entrelacs Savoie | 1.3 | 37% | 9.9% | 254 km |
| 25 | Arpajon-sur-Cère Cantal | 1.2 | 24% | 0.2% | 192 km |
| 26 | Bréal-sous-Montfort Ille-et-Vilaine | 1.1 | 11% | 0% | 50 km |
| 27 | Mûrs-Erigné Maine-et-Loire | 1 | 6.9% | 21% | 117 km |
| 28 | Louhans-Châteaurenaud Saône-et-Loire | 0.9 | 19% | 1.1% | 353 km |
| 29 | Saint-Florent-sur-Cher Cher | 0.9 | 22% | 3.7% | 270 km |
| 30 | Baud Morbihan | 0.8 | 37% | 0% | 17 km |
| 31 | Saint-Flour Cantal | 0.7 | 10% | 15% | 180 km |
| 32 | Saint-André-de-Sangonis Hérault | 0.7 | 3.2% | 11% | 30 km |
| 33 | Mehun-sur-Yèvre Cher | 0.7 | 7.1% | 0% | 272 km |
| 34 | Bons-en-Chablais Haute-Savoie | 0.7 | 38% | 5.3% | 290 km |
| 35 | Plonéour-Lanvern Finistère | 0.6 | 10% | 0.8% | 5 km |
| 36 | Izon Gironde | 0.6 | 5.7% | 49% | 21 km |
| 37 | Combourg Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.5 | 9% | 0% | 19 km |
| 38 | Villemur-sur-Tarn Haute-Garonne | 0.5 | 12% | 1.2% | 156 km |
| 39 | Courthézon Vaucluse | 0.4 | 5.9% | 2.4% | 70 km |
| 40 | Sèvremont Vendée | 0.3 | 5.3% | 0% | 62 km |
| 41 | Auneau-Bleury-Saint-Symphorien Eure-et-Loir | 0.3 | 12% | 1% | 148 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-Flour
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Square Maurice Montel 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
15% of Saint-Flour 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
Planèze de Saint Flour
15% of the commune1.8 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Affluents rive droite de la Truyère amont
2.9 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area15%
Natura 2000 site15%
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.
15% of Saint-Flour’s land is protected, more than in 76% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Cantal has 7.8%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
20 km of footpaths and 11 km of hiking routes cross Saint-Flour
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
20 km
0.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
11 km
waymarked: 0.4 km per km²
Woodland
10%
about 2.8 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Saint-FlourCantal medianFrance median
Footpaths0.7
Hiking routes0.4
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Saint-FlourCantal medianFrance median
Woodland10%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 76% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 59% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 96% of Saint-Flour’s residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Saint-Flour: May to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at St Flour, 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) | 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) | 5 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 17 | 21 | 24 | 24 | 19 | 14 | 8 | 5 |
| Rain (mm) | 52 | 43 | 43 | 72 | 83 | 73 | 60 | 75 | 83 | 81 | 73 | 63 |
February is the driest month (43 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 83 mm of rain falls in May, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 98 nights a year. The climate in Saint-Flour →
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-Flour
Is Saint-Flour in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 15% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Saint-Flour?
OpenStreetMap maps 20 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.7 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 11 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Saint-Flour is woodland?
10% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Saint-Flour near the sea?
No: the coast is 180 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Saint-Flour?
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 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.