Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Lionel Allorge · CC BY-SA 3.0Footpaths add up to 38 km across Bures-sur-Yvette (8.5 km per km²). Waymarked hiking routes add up to 16 km in Bures-sur-Yvette. Mapped woodland covers 26% of Bures-sur-Yvette. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Essonne median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Bures-sur-Yvette apart: its footpaths, then its hiking routes.
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.
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (9,382 to 9,719 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Bures-sur-Yvette (8.5 km per km²) to Tonneins (0.2 km per km²).
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bures-sur-Yvette Essonne | 8.5 | 26% | 0.2% | 155 km |
| 2 | Ville-la-Grand Haute-Savoie | 6 | 14% | 0% | 287 km |
| 3 | Crosne Essonne | 5.8 | 12% | 0% | 167 km |
| 4 | Darnétal Seine-Maritime | 4.2 | 37% | 0% | 53 km |
| 5 | Magny-les-Hameaux Yvelines | 4.1 | 29% | 100% | 149 km |
| 6 | Carqueiranne Var | 3.9 | 28% | 0.1% | On it |
| 7 | Redon Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.8 | 10% | 32% | 28 km |
| 8 | Saint-Jean-le-Blanc Loiret | 3.6 | 4.8% | 11% | 207 km |
| 9 | Lesquin Nord | 3.5 | 4.8% | 0% | 68 km |
| 10 | Vernouillet Yvelines | 3.5 | 19% | 0% | 124 km |
| 11 | Séné Morbihan | 3.3 | 10% | 90% | On it |
| 12 | Arques Pas-de-Calais | 3.3 | 37% | 76% | 31 km |
| 13 | Quincy-sous-Sénart Essonne | 2.8 | 57% | 0% | 174 km |
| 14 | Landivisiau Finistère | 2.8 | 12% | 0.8% | 14 km |
| 15 | Leers Nord | 2.6 | 1.6% | 0% | 64 km |
| 16 | Aucamville Haute-Garonne | 2.5 | 2.3% | 0% | 151 km |
| 17 | Basse-Goulaine Loire-Atlantique | 2.5 | 14% | 14% | 44 km |
| 18 | Sallaumines Pas-de-Calais | 2.4 | 8.1% | 0% | 77 km |
| 19 | Savenay Loire-Atlantique | 2.3 | 14% | 7.7% | 20 km |
| 20 | Clermont-l'Hérault Hérault | 2 | 22% | 46% | 32 km |
| 21 | Pérols Hérault | 1.9 | 0.6% | 37% | 2.2 km |
| 22 | Guichen Ille-et-Vilaine | 1.8 | 11% | 0% | 60 km |
| 23 | Lescar Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 1.6 | 6.6% | 20% | 89 km |
| 24 | Chaponost Rhône | 1.5 | 12% | 0% | 245 km |
| 25 | Belley Ain | 1.4 | 19% | 0% | 261 km |
| 26 | Saint-Rémy-de-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.4 | 23% | 100% | 37 km |
| 27 | Nort-sur-Erdre Loire-Atlantique | 1.2 | 9% | 6.6% | 53 km |
| 28 | Aire-sur-la-Lys Pas-de-Calais | 1.2 | 2.8% | 0% | 43 km |
| 29 | Dombasle-sur-Meurthe Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1 | 17% | 0% | 380 km |
| 30 | Luçon Vendée | 0.9 | 1.1% | 100% | 16 km |
| 31 | Elne Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.8 | 0.2% | 3% | On it |
| 32 | Albert Somme | 0.8 | 1.1% | 0% | 72 km |
| 33 | L'Isle-Jourdain Gers | 0.7 | 7% | 0% | 173 km |
| 34 | Saint-Doulchard Cher | 0.7 | 8.8% | 7.2% | 282 km |
| 35 | Vallet Loire-Atlantique | 0.6 | 7.8% | 0% | 56 km |
| 36 | Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe Tarn | 0.6 | 6.1% | 1.1% | 138 km |
| 37 | Saint-Jean-d'Illac Gironde | 0.5 | 79% | 0.5% | 23 km |
| 38 | Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu Loire-Atlantique | 0.4 | 4.5% | 44% | 26 km |
| 39 | Audenge Gironde | 0.4 | 72% | 100% | On it |
| 40 | Petit-Caux Seine-Maritime | 0.3 | 4.6% | 1.1% | On it |
| 41 | Tonneins Lot-et-Garonne | 0.2 | 2.8% | 3.5% | 99 km |
Tap a number to zoom to a park or wood. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois de la Guyonnerie leads, at 241 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
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.
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.
That is more than in 98% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 72% 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 Bures-sur-Yvette is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
GR655 OT passes within 2 km of Bures-sur-Yvette.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Gometz-Le-Chat., 2.2 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) | 8.7 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.2 | 16.1 | 15.8 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.1 | 8.3 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 16 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 60 | 54 | 54 | 52 | 73 | 61 | 61 | 60 | 53 | 65 | 67 | 77 |
April is the driest month (52 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 77 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 46 nights a year. The climate in Bures-sur-Yvette →
Named gardens in the commune.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and Wikidata.
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bures-sur-Yvette | 0.2% | 26% | 8.5 |
| Les Ulis 25,886 · 1.4 km | 0.2% | 13% | 10.9 |
| Gometz-le-Châtel 2,630 · 1.6 km | 0.2% | 24% | 2.5 |
| Gif-sur-Yvette 22,544 · 2.5 km | 60% | 28% | 7.8 |
| Orsay 16,498 · 2.6 km | 0% | 27% | 7.3 |
| Villebon-sur-Yvette 10,291 · 5.6 km | 0% | 23% | 3.8 |
| Saclay 4,437 · 5.7 km | 0% | 7.5% | 1.6 |
Gif-sur-Yvette has at least twice as much protected land.
No. The nearest protected area is Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Nature Park, 0.6 km from the town center.
OpenStreetMap maps 38 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 8.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 16 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
26% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
No: the coast is 155 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
April and June to September: long days, mild highs and little rain, from Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at the nearest suitable station.
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 8, 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.