First pick
Bois de Grammont
Wood or forest
9.8 ha1.4 km of path
20 minto walk all 1.4 km of path
Centralin the middle of Ussel
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Leberon19 · CC BY-SA 4.038%woodland
Outdoors in Ussel · protected areas, woods and footpaths
38% of Ussel is woodland, more than in 8 in 10 French towns
Footpaths add up to 38 km across Ussel (0.7 km per km²). No protected area reaches Ussel; the nearest, Millevaches en Limousin Regional Nature Park, is 2.1 km from the town center. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 6 km in Ussel. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0.1%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Millevaches en Limousin Regional Nature Park, 2.1 km
Woodland
38%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
38 km
0.7 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
5.7 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
6
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Bois de Grammont
Throughout this page, the Corrèze 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 Ussel?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A wooded commune38% mapped woodland, more than in 84% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.Protected land nearbyMillevaches en Limousin Regional Nature Park is 2.1 km from the town center.
What sets Ussel apart: its woods, then protected land close by.
Against French towns
How Ussel 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 areas0.1%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
50out of 100
Woodland38%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
84out of 100
Footpaths0.7 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
24out of 100
Hiking routes0.1 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
31out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Ussel has the 6th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (9,019 to 9,356 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Magny-le-Hongre (6.5 km per km²) to Valréas (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magny-le-Hongre Seine-et-Marne | 6.5 | 11% | 0% | 167 km |
| 2 | Grabels Hérault | 6.1 | 9.7% | 0% | 17 km |
| 3 | Capbreton Landes | 5.9 | 58% | 11% | On it |
| 4 | La Ravoire Savoie | 5.3 | 14% | 0% | 231 km |
| 5 | Le Crès Hérault | 5.2 | 9.9% | 0% | 12 km |
| 6 | Poisy Haute-Savoie | 5 | 33% | 0% | 263 km |
| 7 | Bougival Yvelines | 4.8 | 20% | 0% | 140 km |
| 8 | Évian-les-Bains Haute-Savoie | 4.8 | 11% | 0% | 299 km |
| 9 | Ouistreham Calvados | 4.6 | 3.8% | 8.5% | On it |
| 10 | Jarville-la-Malgrange Meurthe-et-Moselle | 4.6 | 2.7% | 0% | 369 km |
| 11 | Tomblaine Meurthe-et-Moselle | 4.3 | 2.9% | 0% | 368 km |
| 12 | Vert-Saint-Denis Seine-et-Marne | 3.9 | 23% | 0% | 187 km |
| 13 | Condé-sur-l'Escaut Nord | 3.5 | 44% | 99% | 98 km |
| 14 | Fontaine-lès-Dijon Côte-d'Or | 3.4 | 2.6% | 0% | 400 km |
| 15 | Liffré Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.4 | 61% | 20% | 45 km |
| 16 | Le Passage Lot-et-Garonne | 3.2 | 7.8% | 9% | 131 km |
| 17 | Hagondange Moselle | 3.1 | 11% | 0% | 317 km |
| 18 | Prévessin-Moëns Ain | 2.9 | 17% | 0% | 297 km |
| 19 | Chécy Loiret | 2.9 | 18% | 9.7% | 210 km |
| 20 | Escaudain Nord | 2.9 | 6.3% | 0.2% | 101 km |
| 21 | Breuillet Essonne | 2.8 | 33% | 0% | 164 km |
| 22 | Dardilly Rhône | 2.8 | 20% | 0% | 256 km |
| 23 | Irigny Rhône | 2.8 | 13% | 0% | 242 km |
| 24 | Launaguet Haute-Garonne | 2.7 | 7.2% | 0% | 149 km |
| 25 | Lamorlaye Oise | 2.5 | 42% | 100% | 125 km |
| 26 | Molsheim Bas-Rhin | 2.5 | 8.8% | 0% | 441 km |
| 27 | Morières-lès-Avignon Vaucluse | 2.1 | 4.7% | 0% | 54 km |
| 28 | Beuvry Pas-de-Calais | 2 | 14% | 0% | 61 km |
| 29 | Sarzeau Morbihan | 2 | 13% | 100% | On it |
| 30 | Les Sorinières Loire-Atlantique | 2 | 9.8% | 0% | 37 km |
| 31 | Scionzier Haute-Savoie | 1.9 | 56% | 9.8% | 264 km |
| 32 | Paray-le-Monial Saône-et-Loire | 1.3 | 20% | 0% | 321 km |
| 33 | Varennes-Vauzelles Nièvre | 0.9 | 20% | 0% | 336 km |
| 34 | Nogent-le-Rotrou Eure-et-Loir | 0.8 | 7.9% | 100% | 127 km |
| 35 | Livron-sur-Drôme Drôme | 0.8 | 11% | 4.3% | 147 km |
| 36 | Ussel Corrèze | 0.7 | 38% | 0.1% | 235 km |
| 37 | Le Teich Gironde | 0.6 | 81% | 100% | On it |
| 38 | Rivesaltes Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.5 | 0.2% | 0% | 13 km |
| 39 | Grenade Haute-Garonne | 0.5 | 9.5% | 14% | 165 km |
| 40 | La Fare-les-Oliviers Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.2 | 0.8% | 44% | 23 km |
| 41 | Valréas Vaucluse | 0.1 | 21% | 0% | 104 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 Ussel
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois de Grammont leads, at 9.8 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc de la mairie
Park or garden
1.5 ha0.7 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.7 km of path
0.6 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Parc du château de la Diège
Park or garden
2 ha
1.2 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Parc du musée
Park or garden
0.3 ha0.2 km of path
0.6 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Les Jardins de la Vallée Verte
Park or garden
0.3 ha
1.2 km south-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Millevaches en Limousin Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 2.1 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Millevaches en Limousin Regional Nature Park
2.1 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0.1%
Regional nature park0.1%
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.
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
38 km of footpaths and 6 km of hiking routes cross Ussel
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
38 km
0.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
5.7 km
waymarked: 0.1 km per km²
Woodland
38%
about 19.4 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
UsselCorrèze medianFrance median
Footpaths0.7
Hiking routes0.1
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
UsselCorrèze medianFrance median
Woodland38%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 76% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 84% 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 Ussel 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
Le Transcorrézien8.2 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Ussel: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Ussel-Lamartine, 1.1 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 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.4 | 8.7 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 16 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 100 | 83 | 81 | 105 | 100 | 90 | 80 | 83 | 94 | 100 | 123 | 118 |
July is the driest month (80 mm) and the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 123 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 99 nights a year. The climate in Ussel →
Neighbors
Next to Ussel
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
ÉgletonsUssel
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ussel | 0.1% | 38% | 0.7 |
| Égletons 4,341 · 26 km | 0.1% | 51% | 0.8 |
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 Ussel
Is Ussel in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Millevaches en Limousin Regional Nature Park, 2.1 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Ussel?
OpenStreetMap maps 38 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); 6 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Ussel is woodland?
38% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Ussel near the sea?
No: the coast is 235 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Ussel?
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.