Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Nikolay Tarkhov · Public domain54 km of footpaths cross Orsay (7.3 km per km²). Waymarked hiking routes add up to 22 km in Orsay. Mapped woodland covers 27% of Orsay. 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 Orsay 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 (15,925 to 17,064 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Vauréal (12.3 km per km²) to Gaillac (0.2 km per km²).
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vauréal Val-d'Oise | 12.3 | 19% | 0% | 121 km |
| 2 | Noisiel Seine-et-Marne | 9.5 | 32% | 0.1% | 162 km |
| 3 | Saint-Leu-la-Forêt Val-d'Oise | 8.5 | 36% | 0.5% | 131 km |
| 4 | Marly-le-Roi Yvelines | 7.6 | 37% | 0% | 138 km |
| 5 | Bois-d'Arcy Yvelines | 7.4 | 38% | 0% | 140 km |
| 6 | Orsay Essonne | 7.3 | 27% | 0% | 157 km |
| 7 | Le Pecq Yvelines | 7.1 | 2.7% | 0% | 136 km |
| 8 | Les Clayes-sous-Bois Yvelines | 6.3 | 35% | 0% | 137 km |
| 9 | Le Pré-Saint-Gervais Seine-Saint-Denis | 5.8 | 0% | 0% | 149 km |
| 10 | Verneuil-sur-Seine Yvelines | 5.4 | 24% | 0% | 123 km |
| 11 | Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire Indre-et-Loire | 5 | 9.4% | 1.9% | 184 km |
| 12 | Lons-le-Saunier Jura | 4.9 | 8.8% | 1.8% | 356 km |
| 13 | Sainte-Luce-sur-Loire Loire-Atlantique | 4.7 | 12% | 11% | 45 km |
| 14 | Le Bourget Seine-Saint-Denis | 4.5 | 2.2% | 0% | 145 km |
| 15 | Domont Val-d'Oise | 4.5 | 28% | 0% | 133 km |
| 16 | Landerneau Finistère | 4.4 | 18% | 1.2% | On it |
| 17 | Trélazé Maine-et-Loire | 3.9 | 13% | 0% | 122 km |
| 18 | Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle Loiret | 3.5 | 4.9% | 3% | 203 km |
| 19 | Mennecy Essonne | 3.3 | 19% | 8.2% | 180 km |
| 20 | Ambérieu-en-Bugey Ain | 3.3 | 49% | 0% | 281 km |
| 21 | Saint-Julien-en-Genevois Haute-Savoie | 3.2 | 13% | 0% | 286 km |
| 22 | Firminy Loire | 3 | 25% | 0% | 204 km |
| 23 | Sin-le-Noble Nord | 2.7 | 12% | 0.1% | 90 km |
| 24 | Rumilly Haute-Savoie | 2.3 | 18% | 0.7% | 262 km |
| 25 | Coulommiers Seine-et-Marne | 2 | 16% | 0% | 183 km |
| 26 | Sedan Ardennes | 2 | 17% | 0% | 222 km |
| 27 | Saint-Amand-les-Eaux Nord | 1.9 | 43% | 100% | 93 km |
| 28 | Montceau-les-Mines Saône-et-Loire | 1.8 | 6.6% | 0% | 347 km |
| 29 | La Baule-Escoublac Loire-Atlantique | 1.7 | 9.6% | 37% | 0.8 km |
| 30 | Valserhône Ain | 1.7 | 59% | 19% | 292 km |
| 31 | Guérande Loire-Atlantique | 1.5 | 7.1% | 76% | On it |
| 32 | Verdun Meuse | 1.4 | 21% | 3.6% | 290 km |
| 33 | Montbrison Loire | 1.3 | 5.7% | 4.8% | 227 km |
| 34 | Les Herbiers Vendée | 1.1 | 6.5% | 0% | 62 km |
| 35 | Cestas Gironde | 1 | 58% | 0% | 28 km |
| 36 | Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne Mayenne | 0.9 | 3.1% | 0% | 102 km |
| 37 | Châteaurenard Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.8 | 2.1% | 8.3% | 47 km |
| 38 | Mauguio Hérault | 0.8 | 1.4% | 49% | On it |
| 39 | Pamiers Ariège | 0.6 | 16% | 1.1% | 118 km |
| 40 | Loire-Authion Maine-et-Loire | 0.4 | 10% | 100% | 130 km |
| 41 | Gaillac Tarn | 0.2 | 4.9% | 0% | 132 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.
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 97% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 73% 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 Orsay is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
2 GR routes pass within 2 km of Orsay: GR655 OT and GR 655ET.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Fontenay-Les-B., 9.5 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 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 22 | 17 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 54 | 49 | 50 | 48 | 69 | 58 | 61 | 63 | 51 | 61 | 61 | 71 |
April is the driest month (48 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 26 °C). 71 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 53 nights a year. The climate in Orsay →
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orsay | 0% | 27% | 7.3 |
| Les Ulis 25,886 · 2 km | 0.2% | 13% | 10.9 |
| Bures-sur-Yvette 9,548 · 2.6 km | 0.2% | 26% | 8.5 |
| Villebon-sur-Yvette 10,291 · 3 km | 0% | 23% | 3.8 |
| Villejust 2,558 · 3.5 km | 0% | 4.4% | 2.4 |
| Gometz-le-Châtel 2,630 · 3.9 km | 0.2% | 24% | 2.5 |
| Palaiseau 37,471 · 4.2 km | 0% | 18% | 5.9 |
No. The nearest protected area is Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Nature Park, 2.6 km from the town center.
OpenStreetMap maps 54 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 7.3 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 22 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
27% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
No: the coast is 157 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 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.