First pick
Bois de Courcelles
Wood or forest · 390 m outside the commune
59 ha6 km of path
1 h 20 minto walk all 6 km of path
3.8 km eastfrom the center
Parcours Vita
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Thomas Bresson · CC BY 3.043%woodland
Outdoors in Bavans · protected areas, woods and footpaths
43% of Bavans is woodland, more than in 8 in 10 French towns
32 km of footpaths cross Bavans (3.7 km per km²). No protected area reaches Bavans; the nearest, Côte de Champvermol (Natura 2000), is 6.2 km from the town center. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 4 km in Bavans. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Côte de Champvermol, 6.2 km
Woodland
43%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
32 km
3.7 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.5 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: Bois de Courcelles
Throughout this page, the Doubs 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 Bavans?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A wooded commune43% mapped woodland, more than in 88% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.A place of footpaths3.7 km per km² of mapped footpath, against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.Protected land nearbyCôte de Champvermol (Natura 2000) is 6.2 km from the town center.
What sets Bavans apart: its woods, then its footpaths.
Against French towns
How Bavans 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%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
22out of 100
Woodland43%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
88out of 100
Footpaths3.7 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
81out of 100
Hiking routes0.5 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
62out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Bavans has the 2nd most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (3,550 to 3,611 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Saint-Brice-Courcelles (3.7 km per km²) to Saint-Savin (0 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint-Brice-Courcelles Marne | 3.7 | 15% | 0% | 195 km |
| 2 | Bavans Doubs | 3.7 | 43% | 0% | 415 km |
| 3 | Tosse Landes | 3.3 | 56% | 6.7% | 8.7 km |
| 4 | Orry-la-Ville Oise | 3.3 | 58% | 100% | 131 km |
| 5 | Sainte-Tulle Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 2.8 | 24% | 100% | 60 km |
| 6 | Jonzac Charente-Maritime | 2.7 | 11% | 8.4% | 24 km |
| 7 | Masevaux-Niederbruck Haut-Rhin | 2.6 | 78% | 100% | 445 km |
| 8 | Longeville-lès-Saint-Avold Moselle | 2.5 | 52% | 4.6% | 351 km |
| 9 | Orcines Puy-de-Dôme | 2.5 | 59% | 100% | 259 km |
| 10 | Marines Val-d'Oise | 2.2 | 36% | 100% | 108 km |
| 11 | Servon Seine-et-Marne | 2.2 | 12% | 0% | 172 km |
| 12 | Fontvieille Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.2 | 35% | 100% | 33 km |
| 13 | Montréal-la-Cluse Ain | 2.1 | 67% | 0% | 306 km |
| 14 | Saint-Julien-lès-Metz Moselle | 1.9 | 36% | 0% | 328 km |
| 15 | Olemps Aveyron | 1.8 | 17% | 0% | 135 km |
| 16 | Montrichard Val de Cher Loir-et-Cher | 1.7 | 60% | 0% | 211 km |
| 17 | Givry Saône-et-Loire | 1.7 | 46% | 2.2% | 361 km |
| 18 | Saint-Tropez Var | 1.5 | 16% | 0.1% | On it |
| 19 | Saint-Germain-des-Fossés Allier | 1.4 | 11% | 25% | 298 km |
| 20 | Lumbres Pas-de-Calais | 1.3 | 24% | 100% | 31 km |
| 21 | Espaly-Saint-Marcel Haute-Loire | 1.3 | 11% | 1.5% | 166 km |
| 22 | Neuilly-Crimolois Côte-d'Or | 1.3 | 17% | 0% | 409 km |
| 23 | Châteauneuf-sur-Charente Charente | 1.1 | 12% | 21% | 58 km |
| 24 | La Roche-de-Glun Drôme | 1.1 | 0% | 0% | 173 km |
| 25 | Rocheservière Vendée | 1.1 | 8.4% | 0% | 37 km |
| 26 | Plan-d'Orgon Bouches-du-Rhône | 1 | 5.9% | 12% | 41 km |
| 27 | Pompignac Gironde | 1 | 25% | 0% | 21 km |
| 28 | Thury-Harcourt-le-Hom Calvados | 0.8 | 20% | 0% | 37 km |
| 29 | Corps-Nuds Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.6 | 2.7% | 0% | 65 km |
| 30 | Avesnes-les-Aubert Nord | 0.6 | 0.8% | 0% | 116 km |
| 31 | Loyettes Ain | 0.5 | 5.9% | 12% | 260 km |
| 32 | Le Pont-de-Beauvoisin Isère | 0.5 | 8.4% | 0% | 240 km |
| 33 | Rochechouart Haute-Vienne | 0.4 | 29% | 99% | 131 km |
| 34 | Saint-Jean-d'Hermine Vendée | 0.4 | 9.2% | 2.4% | 27 km |
| 35 | Vic-Fezensac Gers | 0.3 | 13% | 0% | 136 km |
| 36 | Baziège Haute-Garonne | 0.2 | 1.6% | 0% | 127 km |
| 37 | Magalas Hérault | 0.2 | 2.8% | 0% | 24 km |
| 38 | Derval Loire-Atlantique | 0.2 | 9.6% | 0% | 56 km |
| 39 | Réalmont Tarn | 0.1 | 5.9% | 0% | 105 km |
| 40 | Vald'Yerre Eure-et-Loir | 0.1 | 6.5% | 0.1% | 159 km |
| 41 | Saint-Savin Gironde | 0 | 24% | 4% | 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 Bavans
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois de Courcelles leads, at 59 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Côte de Champvermol is the nearest protected area, 6.2 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
Côte de Champvermol
6.2 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0%
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
32 km of footpaths cross Bavans
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
32 km
3.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.5 km
waymarked: 0.5 km per km²
Woodland
43%
about 3.8 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
BavansDoubs medianFrance median
Footpaths3.7
Hiking routes0.5
02.55 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
BavansDoubs medianFrance median
Woodland43%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 81% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 88% 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 Bavans is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR de PaysOther named walk
GRP BF11 km
Borne des quatres fins2 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Bavans: April and June to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Joncherey, 21 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) | 8.8 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 13.6 | 15.1 | 15.9 | 15.6 | 14.2 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.2 | 8.5 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 21 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 21 | 16 | 10 | 6 |
| Rain (mm) | 83 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 102 | 93 | 84 | 98 | 83 | 101 | 98 | 109 |
February is the driest month (78 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 26 °C). 109 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 95 nights a year. The climate in Bavans →
Neighbors
Next to Bavans
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
VoujeaucourtMontbéliardMandeureBethoncourtValentigneyExincourtBavans
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bavans | 0% | 43% | 3.7 |
| Voujeaucourt 3,174 · 2.9 km | 0% | 44% | 2.5 |
| Montbéliard 24,672 · 5.5 km | 0% | 22% | 4.9 |
| Mandeure 4,612 · 7.5 km | 11% | 59% | 3 |
| Bethoncourt 5,308 · 7.5 km | 0% | 38% | 4.4 |
| Valentigney 10,501 · 7.5 km | 0% | 36% | 3.8 |
| Exincourt 3,277 · 7.5 km | 0% | 4% | 3.3 |
Mandeure has 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 Bavans
Is Bavans in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Côte de Champvermol, 6.2 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Bavans?
OpenStreetMap maps 32 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.7 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 4 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Bavans is woodland?
43% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Bavans near the sea?
No: the coast is 415 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Bavans?
April and June 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.