First pick
Bois de Montboulard
Wood or forest
122 ha1.5 km of path
20 minto walk all 1.5 km of path
2.4 km eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Jack ma · CC BY-SA 3.09%of the land protected
Outdoors in Soyaux · protected areas, woods and footpaths
35% of Soyaux is woodland, more than in 8 in 10 French towns
42 km of footpaths cross Soyaux (3.3 km per km²). 9% of Soyaux’s land lies in protected areas. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 5 km in Soyaux. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
9%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
35%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
42 km
3.3 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.9 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
5
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Bois de Montboulard
Throughout this page, the Charente 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 Soyaux?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A wooded commune35% mapped woodland, more than in 81% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.A place of footpaths3.3 km per km² of mapped footpath, against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.
What sets Soyaux apart: its woods, then its footpaths.
Against French towns
How Soyaux 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 areas9%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
71out of 100
Woodland35%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
81out of 100
Footpaths3.3 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
78out of 100
Hiking routes0.4 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
53out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Soyaux has the 9th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (9,913 to 10,254 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Maxéville (5.5 km per km²) to Saint-Loubès (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maxéville Meurthe-et-Moselle | 5.5 | 24% | 0% | 363 km |
| 2 | Saint-Max Meurthe-et-Moselle | 5.1 | 4.9% | 0.3% | 366 km |
| 3 | Villerupt Meurthe-et-Moselle | 4.2 | 30% | 0% | 288 km |
| 4 | Saint-Grégoire Ille-et-Vilaine | 4.2 | 5% | 0% | 44 km |
| 5 | Courrières Pas-de-Calais | 4.1 | 11% | 0% | 76 km |
| 6 | Cabriès Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.7 | 28% | 1.6% | 11 km |
| 7 | Méry-sur-Oise Val-d'Oise | 3.6 | 35% | 0% | 124 km |
| 8 | Grigny-sur-Rhône Rhône | 3.5 | 16% | 0% | 234 km |
| 9 | Soyaux Charente | 3.3 | 35% | 9% | 78 km |
| 10 | Voreppe Isère | 3.3 | 42% | 35% | 213 km |
| 11 | Auchel Pas-de-Calais | 3.1 | 8.6% | 0% | 55 km |
| 12 | Neuville-en-Ferrain Nord | 2.4 | 5.6% | 0% | 54 km |
| 13 | Beaumont-sur-Oise Val-d'Oise | 2.4 | 26% | 35% | 121 km |
| 14 | Pierrelaye Val-d'Oise | 2.4 | 20% | 0% | 126 km |
| 15 | Foix Ariège | 2.2 | 28% | 21% | 117 km |
| 16 | Fillière Haute-Savoie | 2.1 | 49% | 20% | 266 km |
| 17 | Parthenay Deux-Sèvres | 2 | 3.8% | 0.1% | 78 km |
| 18 | Avranches Manche | 1.9 | 1.5% | 0% | 2.5 km |
| 19 | La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Seine-et-Marne | 1.9 | 30% | 0% | 172 km |
| 20 | Pont-Audemer Eure | 1.8 | 20% | 65% | 15 km |
| 21 | Jeumont Nord | 1.8 | 25% | 0.1% | 133 km |
| 22 | Ingré Loiret | 1.8 | 11% | 0% | 200 km |
| 23 | Le Muy Var | 1.7 | 35% | 46% | 16 km |
| 24 | Saint-Pierre-du-Mont Landes | 1.5 | 58% | 3.4% | 69 km |
| 25 | Léguevin Haute-Garonne | 1.5 | 14% | 0% | 161 km |
| 26 | Le Beausset Var | 1.5 | 18% | 69% | 7.1 km |
| 27 | Aniche Nord | 1.4 | 6.8% | 0.1% | 98 km |
| 28 | Lambesc Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.3 | 32% | 65% | 33 km |
| 29 | Apt Vaucluse | 1.2 | 29% | 100% | 58 km |
| 30 | Chambly Oise | 1.2 | 5.4% | 0.1% | 117 km |
| 31 | Mazamet Tarn | 1.2 | 77% | 0.1% | 74 km |
| 32 | Ploërmel Morbihan | 1.1 | 15% | 0% | 39 km |
| 33 | La Farlède Var | 1.1 | 8.7% | 15% | 7.4 km |
| 34 | Couzeix Haute-Vienne | 1.1 | 21% | 0% | 163 km |
| 35 | Douchy-les-Mines Nord | 1 | 11% | 0% | 106 km |
| 36 | Bourg-de-Péage Drôme | 0.9 | 0.4% | 0% | 176 km |
| 37 | Lançon-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.7 | 2.7% | 80% | 23 km |
| 38 | Loudéac Côtes-d'Armor | 0.7 | 14% | 0% | 35 km |
| 39 | Lillers Pas-de-Calais | 0.5 | 7.8% | 0% | 53 km |
| 40 | Carentan-les-Marais Manche | 0.3 | 0.2% | 100% | On it |
| 41 | Saint-Loubès Gironde | 0.2 | 4% | 28% | 16 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 Soyaux
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois de Montboulard leads, at 122 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Square de l'Adjudant-Chef J. Martin
Park or garden
1.3 ha0.7 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.7 km of path
Centralin the middle of Soyaux
Directionsto a point inside
Square du 8 Mai 1945
Park or garden
1.2 ha0.3 km of path
0.7 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Le Petit Fresquet
Park or garden · 270 m outside the commune
1.3 ha
1.7 km westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
9% of Soyaux 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
Vallées calcaires péri-angoumoisines
9% of the commune1.2 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area9%
Natura 2000 site9%
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.
9% of Soyaux’s land is protected, more than in 71% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Charente has 7.4%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
42 km of footpaths cross Soyaux
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
42 km
3.3 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.9 km
waymarked: 0.4 km per km²
Woodland
35%
about 4.4 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
SoyauxCharente medianFrance median
Footpaths3.3
Hiking routes0.4
024 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
SoyauxCharente medianFrance median
Woodland35%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 78% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 81% 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 Soyaux is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
A named hiking route within 2 km
Other named walk
De la Manche aux Pyrénées 14, Touvre - Puymoyen14 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Soyaux: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at La Couronne, 7.3 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 | 13.5 | 14.9 | 15.7 | 15.4 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.4 | 8.7 |
| High (°C) | 10 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 19 | 13 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 77 | 59 | 60 | 69 | 69 | 70 | 55 | 56 | 69 | 78 | 93 | 91 |
July is the driest month (55 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 28 °C). 93 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 42 nights a year. The climate in Soyaux →
Neighbors
Next to Soyaux
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
L'Isle-d'EspagnacAngoulêmeGond-PontouvreMagnac-sur-TouvreRuelle-sur-TouvreSaint-Yrieix-sur-CharenteSoyaux
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soyaux | 9% | 35% | 3.3 |
| L'Isle-d'Espagnac 5,682 · 2.1 km | 0% | 13% | 3.4 |
| Angoulême 41,908 · 2.7 km | 3.6% | 14% | 4.1 |
| Gond-Pontouvre 5,862 · 3.9 km | 16% | 15% | 1.4 |
| Magnac-sur-Touvre 3,255 · 4.1 km | 3.1% | 22% | 1 |
| Ruelle-sur-Touvre 7,408 · 4.7 km | 8% | 6.5% | 0.8 |
| Saint-Yrieix-sur-Charente 7,539 · 5.8 km | 8.7% | 20% | 2.5 |
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 Soyaux
Is Soyaux in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 9% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Soyaux?
OpenStreetMap maps 42 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.3 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 5 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Soyaux is woodland?
35% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Soyaux near the sea?
No: the coast is 78 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Soyaux?
April 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.