First pick
Parc du Bosquet
Park or garden
0.3 ha0.3 km of path
0.6 km south-eastfrom the center
Rue Nancy Bertrand
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Médiathèques Valence Romans agglomération · CC BY 2.025%woodland
Outdoors in Crest · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Crest is within 800 m of a park or wood
Mapped woodland covers 25% of Crest. No protected area reaches Crest; the nearest, Vercors Regional Nature Park, is 2.7 km from the town center. Footpaths add up to 27 km across Crest (1.2 km per km²). 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: Vercors Regional Nature Park, 2.7 km
Woodland
25%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
27 km
1.2 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.7 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
4
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc du Bosquet
Throughout this page, the Drôme 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 Crest 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
47out of 100
Woodland25%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
70out of 100
Footpaths1.2 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
37out 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
Crest has the 20th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (8,552 to 8,763 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From L'Île-Saint-Denis (6.6 km per km²) to Coutras (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L'Île-Saint-Denis Seine-Saint-Denis | 6.6 | 13% | 19% | 142 km |
| 2 | Beauzelle Haute-Garonne | 5.6 | 9.2% | 25% | 154 km |
| 3 | Wingles Pas-de-Calais | 5.1 | 13% | 0% | 69 km |
| 4 | Crolles Isère | 4.6 | 26% | 19% | 207 km |
| 5 | Petit-Couronne Seine-Maritime | 4.2 | 40% | 0% | 49 km |
| 6 | Artigues-près-Bordeaux Gironde | 3.8 | 9.5% | 0% | 18 km |
| 7 | Essey-lès-Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle | 3.7 | 11% | 0% | 366 km |
| 8 | Thorigné-Fouillard Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.1 | 10% | 3.1% | 48 km |
| 9 | Saint-Renan Finistère | 2.9 | 5% | 0% | 8 km |
| 10 | Marcoussis Essonne | 2.7 | 34% | 0% | 163 km |
| 11 | Sautron Loire-Atlantique | 2.3 | 16% | 0% | 34 km |
| 12 | Margny-lès-Compiègne Oise | 2.1 | 1.3% | 0% | 117 km |
| 13 | Lempdes Puy-de-Dôme | 2.1 | 1.8% | 0% | 254 km |
| 14 | Le Teil Ardèche | 2 | 37% | 0% | 120 km |
| 15 | Puget-sur-Argens Var | 1.9 | 9.8% | 54% | 6.5 km |
| 16 | Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Haute-Savoie | 1.8 | 15% | 14% | 243 km |
| 17 | Ergué-Gabéric Finistère | 1.8 | 21% | 0% | 6.3 km |
| 18 | Aulnoye-Aymeries Nord | 1.7 | 1.2% | 100% | 132 km |
| 19 | Soustons Landes | 1.7 | 65% | 9.6% | On it |
| 20 | Le Grau-du-Roi Gard | 1.6 | 3.9% | 89% | On it |
| 21 | La Chapelle-d'Armentières Nord | 1.3 | 2.2% | 0% | 52 km |
| 22 | Crest Drôme | 1.2 | 25% | 0% | 142 km |
| 23 | Isbergues Pas-de-Calais | 1.1 | 0.8% | 0% | 47 km |
| 24 | Sérignan Hérault | 1.1 | 0.2% | 34% | On it |
| 25 | Saint-Chamas Bouches-du-Rhône | 1 | 8.1% | 50% | 15 km |
| 26 | Saint-Jory Haute-Garonne | 0.9 | 6.1% | 6.4% | 159 km |
| 27 | La Ferté-Bernard Sarthe | 0.9 | 1.2% | 0% | 135 km |
| 28 | Plabennec Finistère | 0.7 | 2.3% | 0% | 7.8 km |
| 29 | Roussillon Isère | 0.6 | 12% | 0% | 209 km |
| 30 | Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.6 | 1.2% | 81% | On it |
| 31 | Le Loroux-Bottereau Loire-Atlantique | 0.6 | 6.4% | 8.8% | 53 km |
| 32 | Souleuvre en Bocage Calvados | 0.6 | 10% | 21% | 45 km |
| 33 | Janzé Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.6 | 2.9% | 0% | 70 km |
| 34 | Domérat Allier | 0.5 | 8.5% | 0% | 275 km |
| 35 | Chantonnay Vendée | 0.5 | 12% | 0% | 42 km |
| 36 | Le Poiré-sur-Vie Vendée | 0.4 | 4.9% | 0% | 32 km |
| 37 | Aigues-Mortes Gard | 0.4 | 2.8% | 100% | 6 km |
| 38 | Mauléon Deux-Sèvres | 0.4 | 6.8% | 0% | 76 km |
| 39 | Les Hauts-d'Anjou Maine-et-Loire | 0.3 | 4.5% | 4.1% | 121 km |
| 40 | Sarlat-la-Canéda Dordogne | 0.3 | 42% | 10% | 143 km |
| 41 | Coutras Gironde | 0.1 | 11% | 19% | 37 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 Crest
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc du Bosquet leads, at 0.3 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Place Alexandre Soljenitsyne
Park or garden
0.3 ha
Centralin the middle of Crest
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Vercors Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 2.7 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
Vercors Regional Nature Park
2.7 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.
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
27 km of footpaths and 10 km of hiking routes cross Crest
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
27 km
1.2 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.7 km
waymarked: 0.4 km per km²
Woodland
25%
about 5.9 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
CrestDrôme medianFrance median
Footpaths1.2
Hiking routes0.4
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
CrestDrôme medianFrance median
Woodland25%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 63% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 70% 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 Crest 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
SPHC, étape 227 km
SPHC, étape 213.1 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Crest: June and August
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Puy-St-Martin, 13 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) | 9.2 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.8 | 15.6 | 15.2 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.5 | 8.8 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 11 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 27 | 30 | 30 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 68 | 50 | 56 | 84 | 78 | 53 | 51 | 64 | 113 | 119 | 125 | 61 |
February is the driest month (50 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 30 °C). 125 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 31 nights a year. Summer highs reach 30 °C, too hot for the outline. The climate in Crest →
Neighbors
Next to Crest
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Aouste-sur-SyeAllexMontmeyranLivron-sur-DrômeÉtoile-sur-RhôneBeaumont-lès-ValenceCrest
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crest | 0% | 25% | 1.2 |
| Aouste-sur-Sye 2,733 · 3.2 km | 2.3% | 40% | 1.2 |
| Allex 2,698 · 9.2 km | 3.4% | 7.4% | 0.5 |
| Montmeyran 2,960 · 12 km | 0% | 5.3% | 0.7 |
| Livron-sur-Drôme 9,329 · 15 km | 4.3% | 11% | 0.8 |
| Étoile-sur-Rhône 5,468 · 16 km | 1.6% | 8.7% | 0.5 |
| Beaumont-lès-Valence 4,337 · 16 km | 0% | 9.8% | 0.8 |
Aouste-sur-Sye is 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 Crest
Is Crest in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Vercors Regional Nature Park, 2.7 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Crest?
OpenStreetMap maps 27 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.2 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 10 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Crest is woodland?
25% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Crest near the sea?
No: the coast is 142 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Crest?
June and August: 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.