First pick
Bois des Bezelles
Wood or forest
300 ha1.4 km of path
20 minto walk all 1.4 km of path
2.6 km south-eastfrom the center
Chemin Rural Numéro 2 de Janvry à Saint-Jean de Beauregard
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Lionel Allorge · CC BY-SA 3.024%woodland
Outdoors in Gometz-le-Châtel · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Gometz-le-Châtel is within 800 m of a park or wood
Gometz-le-Châtel has 9 km of waymarked hiking routes. 24% of Gometz-le-Châtel is mapped woodland. 13 km of footpaths cross Gometz-le-Châtel (2.5 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0.2%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Nature Park, 0.7 km
Woodland
24%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
13 km
2.5 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.4 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: Bois des Bezelles
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.
What kind of place
What kind of outdoors place is Gometz-le-Châtel?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
On waymarked routes9 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.Protected land nearbyHaute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Nature Park is 0.7 km from the town center.
What sets Gometz-le-Châtel apart: its hiking routes, then protected land close by.
Against French towns
How Gometz-le-Châtel 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 areas0.2%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
52out of 100
Woodland24%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
68out of 100
Footpaths2.5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
66out of 100
Hiking routes1.9 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
95out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Gometz-le-Châtel has the 2nd most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (2,599 to 2,658 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Couzon-au-Mont-d'Or (7.2 km per km²) to Hilsenheim (0 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Couzon-au-Mont-d'Or Rhône | 7.2 | 42% | 0% | 261 km |
| 2 | Gometz-le-Châtel Essonne | 2.5 | 24% | 0.2% | 155 km |
| 3 | Morzine Haute-Savoie | 2.4 | 33% | 36% | 274 km |
| 4 | Champlan Essonne | 2.2 | 14% | 0% | 161 km |
| 5 | Dorlisheim Bas-Rhin | 2.1 | 12% | 0% | 442 km |
| 6 | Wahagnies Nord | 1.9 | 30% | 0% | 76 km |
| 7 | Coquelles Pas-de-Calais | 1.8 | 1.7% | 0.7% | 2.8 km |
| 8 | Le Bourg-d'Oisans Isère | 1.7 | 33% | 100% | 180 km |
| 9 | Bourguébus Calvados | 1.5 | 1.1% | 0% | 18 km |
| 10 | Le Palais Morbihan | 1.5 | 5% | 26% | On it |
| 11 | Saint-Yorre Allier | 1.4 | 23% | 15% | 283 km |
| 12 | Longeville-sur-Mer Vendée | 1.3 | 18% | 100% | On it |
| 13 | Bessèges Gard | 1.3 | 66% | 100% | 81 km |
| 14 | Villenauxe-la-Grande Aube | 1.3 | 13% | 0% | 223 km |
| 15 | Foug Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.3 | 73% | 1.2% | 342 km |
| 16 | Auboué Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.2 | 21% | 0% | 311 km |
| 17 | Cauffry Oise | 1.2 | 17% | 0% | 110 km |
| 18 | Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais Eure-et-Loir | 1.2 | 57% | 62% | 115 km |
| 19 | Taden Côtes-d'Armor | 1.1 | 19% | 100% | 3.6 km |
| 20 | La Broque Bas-Rhin | 1.1 | 79% | 8% | 432 km |
| 21 | Vendres Hérault | 1 | 1.9% | 60% | On it |
| 22 | Montréjeau Haute-Garonne | 0.9 | 5.7% | 2.6% | 175 km |
| 23 | Ivry-la-Bataille Eure | 0.8 | 2.6% | 3.2% | 101 km |
| 24 | Villeneuve-Saint-Germain Aisne | 0.8 | 11% | 0% | 150 km |
| 25 | Grâces Côtes-d'Armor | 0.8 | 12% | 0% | 17 km |
| 26 | Marpent Nord | 0.7 | 15% | 0% | 133 km |
| 27 | La Calmette Gard | 0.7 | 29% | 0% | 43 km |
| 28 | Frelinghien Nord | 0.7 | 1% | 0% | 51 km |
| 29 | Soual Tarn | 0.6 | 1.4% | 0% | 95 km |
| 30 | Le Thoronet Var | 0.6 | 49% | 31% | 29 km |
| 31 | La Châtaigneraie Vendée | 0.6 | 4.5% | 0% | 48 km |
| 32 | Rieux-Volvestre Haute-Garonne | 0.6 | 6.6% | 7% | 154 km |
| 33 | Trélon Nord | 0.6 | 78% | 100% | 156 km |
| 34 | Toury Eure-et-Loir | 0.5 | 0.8% | 0% | 180 km |
| 35 | Beychac-et-Caillau Gironde | 0.4 | 16% | 4.7% | 22 km |
| 36 | Montayral Lot-et-Garonne | 0.4 | 10% | 8.3% | 137 km |
| 37 | Noyers-sur-Cher Loir-et-Cher | 0.3 | 34% | 0.6% | 221 km |
| 38 | Clairac Lot-et-Garonne | 0.3 | 7.7% | 0% | 105 km |
| 39 | Ailly-sur-Noye Somme | 0.2 | 22% | 0% | 68 km |
| 40 | Haspres Nord | 0.2 | 1.8% | 0% | 111 km |
| 41 | Hilsenheim Bas-Rhin | 0 | 28% | 18% | 465 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 Gometz-le-Châtel
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois des Bezelles leads, at 300 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Forêt communale de Gif-sur-Yvette
Wood or forest
103 ha6.9 km of path
1 h 30 minto walk all 6.9 km of path
1.4 km north-westfrom the center
DHAvenue ParmentierChemin des Coudraies
Directionsto a point inside
Potager fleuri
Park or garden · 230 m outside the commune
1.7 ha1 km of path
15 minto walk all 1 km of path
2.3 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
Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 0.7 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
Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Nature Park
0.7 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0.2%
Regional nature park0.2%
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
13 km of footpaths and 9 km of hiking routes cross Gometz-le-Châtel
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
13 km
2.5 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.4 km
waymarked: 1.9 km per km²
Woodland
24%
about 1.2 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Gometz-le-ChâtelEssonne medianFrance median
Footpaths2.5
Hiking routes1.9
02.55 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Gometz-le-ChâtelEssonne medianFrance median
Woodland24%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 66% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 68% 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 Gometz-le-Châtel is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
8 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR655 OT4.8 km
De la Bièvre à l'Orge13 km
Boucle de l'Abbaye4.8 km
Chemin de Trèves, Igny - Rambouillet4.8 km
Boucle de la Mérantaise2.7 km
Entre ville et nature, Yvette et Mérantaise2.4 km
Les Planètes au fil de l’Yvette2 km
Chemin Charles Péguy1.3 km
GR655 OT passes within 2 km of Gometz-le-Châtel.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Gometz-le-Châtel: April and June to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Gometz-Le-Chat., 0.7 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 Gometz-le-Châtel →
Neighbors
Next to Gometz-le-Châtel
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Bures-sur-YvetteLes UlisGif-sur-YvetteOrsayBriis-sous-ForgesSaint-Rémy-lès-ChevreuseGometz-le-Châtel
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gometz-le-Châtel | 0.2% | 24% | 2.5 |
| Bures-sur-Yvette 9,548 · 1.6 km | 0.2% | 26% | 8.5 |
| Les Ulis 25,886 · 2 km | 0.2% | 13% | 10.9 |
| Gif-sur-Yvette 22,544 · 2.3 km | 60% | 28% | 7.8 |
| Orsay 16,498 · 3.9 km | 0% | 27% | 7.3 |
| Briis-sous-Forges 3,342 · 6.1 km | 0.1% | 22% | 3.5 |
| Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse 7,747 · 6.1 km | 100% | 48% | 4.2 |
Gif-sur-Yvette and Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse have at least twice as much protected land. Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse 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 Gometz-le-Châtel
Is Gometz-le-Châtel in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Nature Park, 0.7 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Gometz-le-Châtel?
OpenStreetMap maps 13 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 9 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Gometz-le-Châtel is woodland?
24% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Gometz-le-Châtel near the sea?
No: the coast is 155 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Gometz-le-Châtel?
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.