Photo: Fagairolles 34 · CC BY-SA 4.0Almost every home in Gigean is within 800 m of a park or wood
Footpaths add up to 56 km across Gigean (3.4 km per km²). Waymarked hiking routes add up to 14 km in Gigean. 6.4% of Gigean is mapped woodland. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Hérault median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
What kind of outdoors place is Gigean?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Gigean apart: its footpaths, then its hiking routes.
How Gigean 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.
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Gigean has the 9th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (6,564 to 6,703 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Bouffémont (9.6 km per km²) to Longué-Jumelles (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bouffémont Val-d'Oise | 9.6 | 54% | 0.9% | 131 km |
| 2 | Grenay Pas-de-Calais | 6.3 | 6.7% | 0% | 71 km |
| 3 | Luxeuil-les-Bains Haute-Saône | 5.7 | 68% | 59% | 432 km |
| 4 | Châtelaillon-Plage Charente-Maritime | 4.6 | 0.5% | 22% | On it |
| 5 | Ceyrat Puy-de-Dôme | 4.6 | 48% | 100% | 254 km |
| 6 | Gémenos Bouches-du-Rhône | 4.1 | 22% | 92% | 11 km |
| 7 | La Bassée Nord | 3.8 | 1.1% | 0% | 64 km |
| 8 | Cassis Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.7 | 28% | 83% | On it |
| 9 | Gigean Hérault | 3.4 | 6.4% | 12% | 8.7 km |
| 10 | Honfleur Calvados | 3.2 | 9.2% | 4.7% | On it |
| 11 | La Penne-sur-Huveaune Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.8 | 41% | 37% | 7.3 km |
| 12 | Canohès Pyrénées-Orientales | 2.5 | 0% | 0% | 16 km |
| 13 | Inzinzac-Lochrist Morbihan | 2.5 | 40% | 0% | 2.3 km |
| 14 | Thoiry Ain | 2.4 | 44% | 63% | 298 km |
| 15 | Thônes Haute-Savoie | 2.4 | 67% | 29% | 252 km |
| 16 | Bouchemaine Maine-et-Loire | 2.2 | 14% | 11% | 113 km |
| 17 | Chasse-sur-Rhône Isère | 2.2 | 12% | 0% | 232 km |
| 18 | Furiani Haute-Corse | 1.9 | 0.6% | 6.3% | On it |
| 19 | Saint-Juéry Tarn | 1.8 | 11% | 0% | 116 km |
| 20 | Le Lavandou Var | 1.8 | 28% | 0.1% | On it |
| 21 | Laneuveville-devant-Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.6 | 0.9% | 0% | 371 km |
| 22 | Labarthe-sur-Lèze Haute-Garonne | 1.6 | 5.1% | 2% | 144 km |
| 23 | Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron Charente-Maritime | 1.5 | 12% | 26% | On it |
| 24 | Labruguière Tarn | 1.4 | 44% | 100% | 84 km |
| 25 | Lentilly Rhône | 1.3 | 15% | 0% | 255 km |
| 26 | Gignac Hérault | 1.2 | 26% | 4.8% | 29 km |
| 27 | Montech Tarn-et-Garonne | 1.1 | 33% | 3.3% | 180 km |
| 28 | Meung-sur-Loire Loiret | 1.1 | 7.2% | 6.4% | 204 km |
| 29 | Montauban-de-Bretagne Ille-et-Vilaine | 1 | 13% | 0% | 32 km |
| 30 | Longuenée-en-Anjou Maine-et-Loire | 1 | 6.8% | 2.3% | 114 km |
| 31 | Migennes Yonne | 0.9 | 8.7% | 0% | 280 km |
| 32 | Chalonnes-sur-Loire Maine-et-Loire | 0.9 | 11% | 33% | 99 km |
| 33 | Vigneux-de-Bretagne Loire-Atlantique | 0.8 | 20% | 0% | 34 km |
| 34 | Elven Morbihan | 0.7 | 30% | 100% | 13 km |
| 35 | Loriol-sur-Drôme Drôme | 0.7 | 12% | 4.7% | 144 km |
| 36 | Feignies Nord | 0.5 | 4.1% | 100% | 126 km |
| 37 | Sury-le-Comtal Loire | 0.5 | 2.4% | 0.6% | 220 km |
| 38 | Héric Loire-Atlantique | 0.4 | 13% | 0% | 42 km |
| 39 | Vallons-de-l'Erdre Loire-Atlantique | 0.4 | 13% | 0% | 81 km |
| 40 | Fronton Haute-Garonne | 0.4 | 12% | 0% | 162 km |
| 41 | Longué-Jumelles Maine-et-Loire | 0.2 | 21% | 100% | 143 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
12% of Gigean lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Plaine de Fabrègues-Poussan
Share of the commune’s land
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.
12% of Gigean’s land is protected, more than in 74% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Hérault has 12%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
56 km of footpaths and 14 km of hiking routes cross Gigean
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.
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
That is more than in 79% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less 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. 99% of Gigean’s residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Gigean: April to August
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Villeneuve-Les-Mag-Inrae, 12 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) | 9.3 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.7 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 9.0 |
| High (°C) | 12 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 26 | 29 | 29 | 25 | 21 | 16 | 13 |
| Rain (mm) | 51 | 38 | 42 | 48 | 40 | 31 | 18 | 33 | 76 | 91 | 72 | 51 |
July is the driest month (18 mm) and the warmest (highs of 29 °C). 91 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 19 nights a year. The climate in Gigean →
Next to Gigean
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gigean | 12% | 6.4% | 3.4 | 8.7 km |
| Montbazin 2,877 · 2.3 km | 58% | 1.9% | 2 | 11 km |
| Poussan 6,797 · 3.5 km | 38% | 2.1% | 1.5 | 8.5 km |
| Balaruc-le-Vieux 2,737 · 4.6 km | 19% | 5.5% | 2.5 | 5.4 km |
| Cournonsec 3,616 · 5.2 km | 49% | 0.2% | 2.5 | 13 km |
| Balaruc-les-Bains 7,139 · 6.1 km | 33% | 0.7% | 3.5 | 3.8 km |
| Vic-la-Gardiole 3,428 · 6.4 km | 70% | 4.8% | 1 | On it |
Montbazin, Poussan and Cournonsec have at least twice as much protected land.
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 Gigean
Is Gigean in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 12% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Gigean?
OpenStreetMap maps 56 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.4 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 14 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Gigean is woodland?
6.4% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Gigean near the sea?
No: the coast is 8.7 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Gigean?
April to 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 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.