First pick
Coteau Saint-Michel
Wood or forest
16 ha3.2 km of path
40 minto walk all 3.2 km of path
1.1 km westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Wikipedro · CC BY-SA 3.0100%of the land protected
Outdoors in Maîche · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Maîche lies inside Doubs Horloger Regional Nature Park
Protected areas cover 100% of Maîche’s land. Mapped woodland covers 31% of Maîche. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 9 km in Maîche. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
100%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
31%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
23 km
1.3 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
8.9 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
3
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Coteau Saint-Michel
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 Maîche?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Doubs Horloger Regional Nature Park100% of the commune is in the regional nature park.A wooded commune31% mapped woodland, more than in 77% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.
What sets Maîche apart: the regional nature park around it, then its woods.
Against French towns
How Maîche 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 areas100%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
99out of 100
Woodland31%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
77out of 100
Footpaths1.3 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
41out 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
Maîche has the 17th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,215 to 4,292 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (5 km per km²) to Terres-de-Caux (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Le Touquet-Paris-Plage Pas-de-Calais | 5 | 23% | 9.8% | On it |
| 2 | Brives-Charensac Haute-Loire | 4.2 | 17% | 0% | 166 km |
| 3 | Mimet Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.9 | 49% | 44% | 16 km |
| 4 | Leuville-sur-Orge Essonne | 3.8 | 15% | 0% | 166 km |
| 5 | Corenc Isère | 3.8 | 50% | 45% | 206 km |
| 6 | Agneaux Manche | 3.5 | 10% | 0% | 25 km |
| 7 | Barbentane Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.1 | 36% | 8.1% | 50 km |
| 8 | Roquettes Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 4.1% | 4.3% | 147 km |
| 9 | Courseulles-sur-Mer Calvados | 2.7 | 1% | 0% | On it |
| 10 | Angoulins Charente-Maritime | 2.7 | 0.3% | 3.8% | On it |
| 11 | Pont-Péan Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.3 | 16% | 0% | 57 km |
| 12 | Saint-Pierre-d'Albigny Savoie | 2.2 | 50% | 100% | 225 km |
| 13 | La Norville Essonne | 2.2 | 4% | 0% | 168 km |
| 14 | Combrit Finistère | 2.2 | 20% | 3.3% | On it |
| 15 | Plomelin Finistère | 2.1 | 19% | 0% | On it |
| 16 | Rouffach Haut-Rhin | 1.8 | 37% | 10% | 464 km |
| 17 | Lanvallay Côtes-d'Armor | 1.8 | 17% | 100% | 4.9 km |
| 18 | Wolfisheim Bas-Rhin | 1.6 | 7.5% | 0% | 446 km |
| 19 | Désertines Allier | 1.5 | 20% | 0% | 281 km |
| 20 | Fleury Aude | 1.5 | 0.7% | 98% | On it |
| 21 | Tonnerre Yonne | 1.5 | 41% | 0% | 308 km |
| 22 | Ecquevilly Yvelines | 1.4 | 26% | 0% | 124 km |
| 23 | Vimy Pas-de-Calais | 1.3 | 16% | 0% | 80 km |
| 24 | Saint-Just-Malmont Haute-Loire | 1.3 | 47% | 0.3% | 199 km |
| 25 | Maîche Doubs | 1.3 | 31% | 100% | 389 km |
| 26 | Beauvallon Rhône | 1.3 | 18% | 0% | 231 km |
| 27 | Rognonas Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.2 | 0% | 13% | 50 km |
| 28 | Pluguffan Finistère | 1.1 | 14% | 0% | 4.3 km |
| 29 | Rians Var | 0.9 | 70% | 70% | 45 km |
| 30 | Saint-Laurent-Nouan Loir-et-Cher | 0.6 | 42% | 26% | 213 km |
| 31 | Nozay Loire-Atlantique | 0.6 | 9.7% | 0% | 52 km |
| 32 | Châteauneuf-sur-Isère Drôme | 0.6 | 6.5% | 2.1% | 173 km |
| 33 | Nanteuil-le-Haudouin Oise | 0.5 | 9.7% | 32% | 142 km |
| 34 | Sanvignes-les-Mines Saône-et-Loire | 0.5 | 12% | 0% | 345 km |
| 35 | Serémange-Erzange Moselle | 0.5 | 14% | 0% | 307 km |
| 36 | Breteuil Oise | 0.4 | 15% | 0% | 75 km |
| 37 | Pontorson Manche | 0.4 | 0.4% | 6.2% | On it |
| 38 | Jouarre Seine-et-Marne | 0.3 | 28% | 0% | 175 km |
| 39 | Breteuil Eure | 0.3 | 31% | 0.2% | 78 km |
| 40 | Betschdorf Bas-Rhin | 0.2 | 41% | 49% | 436 km |
| 41 | Terres-de-Caux Seine-Maritime | 0.1 | 0.8% | 0% | 19 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 Maîche
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Coteau Saint-Michel leads, at 16 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Maîche
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Doubs Horloger Regional Nature Park
100% of the commune
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area100%
Regional nature park100%
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.
100% of Maîche’s land is protected, more than in 99% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Doubs has 0%. 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
23 km of footpaths and 9 km of hiking routes cross Maîche
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
23 km
1.3 km per km²
Hiking routes
8.9 km
waymarked: 0.5 km per km²
Woodland
31%
about 5.4 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
MaîcheDoubs medianFrance median
Footpaths1.3
Hiking routes0.5
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
MaîcheDoubs medianFrance median
Woodland31%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 59% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 77% 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 Maîche is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Par Le Faux Verger12 km
Balade aux Faux Verger0.8 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Maîche: June to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Maiche, 1.3 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) | 8.9 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 15.1 | 15.9 | 15.6 | 14.2 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.2 | 8.5 |
| High (°C) | 4 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 17 | 14 | 8 | 5 |
| Rain (mm) | 112 | 97 | 102 | 105 | 142 | 118 | 133 | 133 | 117 | 124 | 116 | 135 |
February is the driest month (97 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 22 °C). 142 mm of rain falls in May, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 124 nights a year. The climate in Maîche →
Neighbors
Next to Maîche
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
CharquemontLe RusseyPont-de-Roide-VermondansHérimoncourtMandeureVillers-le-LacMaîche
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maîche | 100% | 31% | 1.3 |
| Charquemont 2,900 · 4.4 km | 100% | 39% | 1.5 |
| Le Russey 2,599 · 11 km | 100% | 26% | 0.7 |
| Pont-de-Roide-Vermondans 3,912 · 16 km | 4.5% | 67% | 2.1 |
| Hérimoncourt 3,508 · 22 km | 0% | 57% | 2.5 |
| Mandeure 4,612 · 22 km | 11% | 59% | 3 |
| Villers-le-Lac 5,292 · 23 km | 100% | 45% | 2 |
Pont-de-Roide-Vermondans, Hérimoncourt and Mandeure are 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 Maîche
Is Maîche in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Maîche lies in Doubs Horloger Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Maîche?
OpenStreetMap maps 23 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.3 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 9 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Maîche is woodland?
31% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Maîche near the sea?
No: the coast is 389 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Maîche?
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.