First pick
Jardin public de l'Abbaye
Park or garden
0.8 ha0.5 km of path
5 minto walk all 0.5 km of path
Centralin the middle of Bernay
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Rolf Kranz · CC BY-SA 4.04.7%of the land protected
Outdoors in Bernay · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Bernay is within 800 m of a park or wood
Footpaths add up to 21 km across Bernay (0.9 km per km²). Protected areas cover 4.7% of Bernay’s land. Mapped woodland covers 15% of Bernay. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
4.7%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
15%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
21 km
0.9 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
7.6 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
2
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Jardin public de l'Abbaye
The sea
42 km
from the town center to the coast
Throughout this page, the Eure 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 Bernay 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 areas4.7%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
65out of 100
Woodland15%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
53out of 100
Footpaths0.9 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
27out of 100
Hiking routes0.3 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
47out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Bernay has the 11th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (9,596 to 9,945 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Crosne (5.8 km per km²) to Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crosne Essonne | 5.8 | 12% | 0% | 167 km |
| 2 | Saint-Max Meurthe-et-Moselle | 5.1 | 4.9% | 0.3% | 366 km |
| 3 | Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou Maine-et-Loire | 4.4 | 10% | 0.1% | 123 km |
| 4 | Beauchamp Val-d'Oise | 4.2 | 12% | 0% | 129 km |
| 5 | Montlhéry Essonne | 4.1 | 9.8% | 0% | 165 km |
| 6 | Aytré Charente-Maritime | 3.7 | 1.1% | 0% | On it |
| 7 | Lesquin Nord | 3.5 | 4.8% | 0% | 68 km |
| 8 | Vernouillet Yvelines | 3.5 | 19% | 0% | 124 km |
| 9 | Le Rheu Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.4 | 5.5% | 0% | 46 km |
| 10 | Frouzins Haute-Garonne | 3.3 | 7.7% | 11% | 152 km |
| 11 | Voreppe Isère | 3.3 | 42% | 35% | 213 km |
| 12 | Montigny-en-Gohelle Pas-de-Calais | 3.1 | 7.7% | 0% | 78 km |
| 13 | Portet-sur-Garonne Haute-Garonne | 3 | 9.8% | 15% | 146 km |
| 14 | Grand-Couronne Seine-Maritime | 2.9 | 42% | 0.2% | 48 km |
| 15 | Aucamville Haute-Garonne | 2.5 | 2.3% | 0% | 151 km |
| 16 | Basse-Goulaine Loire-Atlantique | 2.5 | 14% | 14% | 44 km |
| 17 | Bondues Nord | 2.2 | 6.4% | 0% | 56 km |
| 18 | Ézanville Val-d'Oise | 2.2 | 0.7% | 0% | 134 km |
| 19 | Foix Ariège | 2.2 | 28% | 21% | 117 km |
| 20 | Figeac Lot | 2.1 | 27% | 0% | 182 km |
| 21 | Pérols Hérault | 1.9 | 0.6% | 37% | 2.2 km |
| 22 | Roche-la-Molière Loire | 1.8 | 8.5% | 0% | 209 km |
| 23 | Léguevin Haute-Garonne | 1.5 | 14% | 0% | 161 km |
| 24 | Saint-Lys Haute-Garonne | 1.5 | 9.5% | 0% | 162 km |
| 25 | Saint-Rémy-de-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.4 | 23% | 100% | 37 km |
| 26 | Saint-Amand-Montrond Cher | 1.3 | 10% | 6.4% | 282 km |
| 27 | Aire-sur-la-Lys Pas-de-Calais | 1.2 | 2.8% | 0% | 43 km |
| 28 | Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.2 | 0.1% | 45% | 3.8 km |
| 29 | Merville Nord | 1 | 2% | 0% | 48 km |
| 30 | Bourg-de-Péage Drôme | 0.9 | 0.4% | 0% | 176 km |
| 31 | Bernay Eure | 0.9 | 15% | 4.7% | 42 km |
| 32 | Lançon-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.7 | 2.7% | 80% | 23 km |
| 33 | Saint-Doulchard Cher | 0.7 | 8.8% | 7.2% | 282 km |
| 34 | Revel Haute-Garonne | 0.7 | 4.3% | 0% | 99 km |
| 35 | Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe Tarn | 0.6 | 6.1% | 1.1% | 138 km |
| 36 | Lorgues Var | 0.6 | 53% | 6.3% | 30 km |
| 37 | Saint-Jean-d'Illac Gironde | 0.5 | 79% | 0.5% | 23 km |
| 38 | Mézidon Vallée d'Auge Calvados | 0.5 | 8.1% | 0% | 24 km |
| 39 | Carmaux Tarn | 0.4 | 3.3% | 0% | 127 km |
| 40 | Audenge Gironde | 0.4 | 72% | 100% | On it |
| 41 | Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire Nièvre | 0.3 | 24% | 3.8% | 295 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 Bernay
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Jardin public de l'Abbaye leads, at 0.8 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
4.7% of Bernay lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Risle, Guiel, Charentonne
4.7% of the commune0.1 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area4.7%
Natura 2000 site4.7%
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.
4.7% of Bernay’s land is protected, more than in 65% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Eure has 0.3%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
21 km of footpaths and 8 km of hiking routes cross Bernay
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
21 km
0.9 km per km²
Hiking routes
7.6 km
waymarked: 0.3 km per km²
Woodland
15%
about 3.6 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
BernayEure medianFrance median
Footpaths0.9
Hiking routes0.3
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
BernayEure medianFrance median
Woodland15%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 73% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 53% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 99% of Bernay’s residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)
GR 2617 km
GR 2240.6 km
2 GR routes pass within 2 km of Bernay: GR 26 and GR 224.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Bernay: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Brionne, 14 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) | 8.6 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.3 | 16.2 | 15.8 | 14.4 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.0 | 8.2 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 22 | 17 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 72 | 60 | 58 | 54 | 62 | 55 | 60 | 63 | 61 | 75 | 79 | 95 |
April is the driest month (54 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 95 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 52 nights a year. The climate in Bernay →
Neighbors
Next to Bernay
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Mesnil-en-OucheBeaumont-le-RogerBrionneLe NeubourgLisieuxLa Ferté-en-OucheBernay
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bernay | 4.7% | 15% | 0.9 | 42 km |
| Mesnil-en-Ouche 4,414 · 13 km | 0.4% | 13% | 0.2 | 55 km |
| Beaumont-le-Roger 2,769 · 13 km | 2% | 79% | 1.2 | 50 km |
| Brionne 4,185 · 15 km | 14% | 38% | 0.6 | 38 km |
| Le Neubourg 4,199 · 24 km | 0% | 19% | 2.3 | 51 km |
| Lisieux 19,645 · 27 km | 0% | 1.9% | 2.4 | 26 km |
| La Ferté-en-Ouche 2,938 · 28 km | 1.4% | 13% | 0.4 | 65 km |
Brionne has at least twice as much protected land. Beaumont-le-Roger and Brionne 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 Bernay
Is Bernay in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 4.7% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Bernay?
OpenStreetMap maps 21 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.9 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 8 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Bernay is woodland?
15% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Bernay near the sea?
No: the coast is 42 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Bernay?
April 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 October 30, 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.