First pick
Parc Jean-Claude Paturel
Park or garden
10 ha3.3 km of path
45 minto walk all 3.3 km of path
Centralin the middle of Crolles
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Patafisik · CC BY-SA 4.019%of the land protected
Outdoors in Crolles · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Crolles has more footpaths per km² than 8 in 10 French towns
Footpaths add up to 67 km across Crolles (4.6 km per km²). 26% of Crolles is mapped woodland. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 11 km in Crolles. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
19%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
26%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
67 km
4.6 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
11 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
1
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc Jean-Claude Paturel
Throughout this page, the Isère 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 Crolles 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 areas19%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
78out of 100
Woodland26%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
71out of 100
Footpaths4.6 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
88out of 100
Hiking routes0.7 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
74out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Crolles has the 2nd most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (8,519 to 8,699 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From L'Île-Saint-Denis (6.6 km per km²) to Coutras (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L'Île-Saint-Denis Seine-Saint-Denis | 6.6 | 13% | 19% | 142 km |
| 2 | Crolles Isère | 4.6 | 26% | 19% | 207 km |
| 3 | Petit-Couronne Seine-Maritime | 4.2 | 40% | 0% | 49 km |
| 4 | Artigues-près-Bordeaux Gironde | 3.8 | 9.5% | 0% | 18 km |
| 5 | Essey-lès-Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle | 3.7 | 11% | 0% | 366 km |
| 6 | Rouvroy Pas-de-Calais | 3.3 | 5% | 0% | 81 km |
| 7 | Thorigné-Fouillard Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.1 | 10% | 3.1% | 48 km |
| 8 | Saint-Renan Finistère | 2.9 | 5% | 0% | 8 km |
| 9 | Marcoussis Essonne | 2.7 | 34% | 0% | 163 km |
| 10 | Vendin-le-Vieil Pas-de-Calais | 2.7 | 11% | 0% | 72 km |
| 11 | Varces-Allières-et-Risset Isère | 2.4 | 33% | 32% | 194 km |
| 12 | Sautron Loire-Atlantique | 2.3 | 16% | 0% | 34 km |
| 13 | Privas Ardèche | 2.1 | 32% | 1.6% | 136 km |
| 14 | Bormes-les-Mimosas Var | 2.1 | 38% | 8.3% | On it |
| 15 | Margny-lès-Compiègne Oise | 2.1 | 1.3% | 0% | 117 km |
| 16 | Puget-sur-Argens Var | 1.9 | 9.8% | 54% | 6.5 km |
| 17 | Vif Isère | 1.8 | 48% | 7% | 189 km |
| 18 | Ergué-Gabéric Finistère | 1.8 | 21% | 0% | 6.3 km |
| 19 | Aulnoye-Aymeries Nord | 1.7 | 1.2% | 100% | 132 km |
| 20 | Lillebonne Seine-Maritime | 1.6 | 18% | 0% | 16 km |
| 21 | Le Grau-du-Roi Gard | 1.6 | 3.9% | 89% | On it |
| 22 | Uzès Gard | 1.6 | 6.9% | 0% | 57 km |
| 23 | Crest Drôme | 1.2 | 25% | 0% | 142 km |
| 24 | Isbergues Pas-de-Calais | 1.1 | 0.8% | 0% | 47 km |
| 25 | Sérignan Hérault | 1.1 | 0.2% | 34% | On it |
| 26 | Saint-Chamas Bouches-du-Rhône | 1 | 8.1% | 50% | 15 km |
| 27 | Saint-Jory Haute-Garonne | 0.9 | 6.1% | 6.4% | 159 km |
| 28 | Plabennec Finistère | 0.7 | 2.3% | 0% | 7.8 km |
| 29 | Roussillon Isère | 0.6 | 12% | 0% | 209 km |
| 30 | Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.6 | 1.2% | 81% | On it |
| 31 | Châteauneuf-sur-Loire Loiret | 0.6 | 49% | 22% | 222 km |
| 32 | Le Loroux-Bottereau Loire-Atlantique | 0.6 | 6.4% | 8.8% | 53 km |
| 33 | Souleuvre en Bocage Calvados | 0.6 | 10% | 21% | 45 km |
| 34 | Janzé Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.6 | 2.9% | 0% | 70 km |
| 35 | Thaon-les-Vosges Vosges | 0.6 | 41% | 0% | 406 km |
| 36 | Domérat Allier | 0.5 | 8.5% | 0% | 275 km |
| 37 | Chantonnay Vendée | 0.5 | 12% | 0% | 42 km |
| 38 | Le Poiré-sur-Vie Vendée | 0.4 | 4.9% | 0% | 32 km |
| 39 | Aigues-Mortes Gard | 0.4 | 2.8% | 100% | 6 km |
| 40 | Mauléon Deux-Sèvres | 0.4 | 6.8% | 0% | 76 km |
| 41 | Coutras Gironde | 0.1 | 11% | 19% | 37 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 Crolles
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc Jean-Claude Paturel leads, at 10 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
19% of Crolles lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Chartreuse Regional Nature Park
19% of the commune0.7 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area19%
Regional nature park19%
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.
19% of Crolles’ land is protected, more than in 78% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Isère has 0%. 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
Footpaths and woods in Crolles
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
67 km
4.6 km per km²
Hiking routes
11 km
waymarked: 0.7 km per km²
Woodland
26%
about 3.7 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
CrollesIsère medianFrance median
Footpaths4.6
Hiking routes0.7
036 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
CrollesIsère medianFrance median
Woodland26%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 88% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 71% 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 Crolles is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
5 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 96519 km
Chemin d'Assise, Cluny - Montcenis18 km
Tour des Petites Roches2.3 km
Sentier thématique du Marais de Montfort2.1 km
Balade Bec Margain1.3 km
GR 965 passes within 2 km of Crolles.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Crolles: April and June to August
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Pont-De-Beauvoisin, 32 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) | 9.1 | 10.3 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.9 | 15.6 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.9 | 9.4 | 8.7 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 9 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 26 | 29 | 28 | 23 | 18 | 11 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 84 | 69 | 84 | 93 | 115 | 103 | 94 | 89 | 111 | 117 | 113 | 94 |
February is the driest month (69 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 29 °C). 117 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 83 nights a year. The climate in Crolles →
Neighbors
Next to Crolles
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
BerninFrogesSaint-Nazaire-les-EymesVillard-BonnotSaint-IsmierLe VersoudCrolles
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crolles | 19% | 26% | 4.6 |
| Bernin 3,334 · 2 km | 14% | 28% | 3.7 |
| Froges 3,285 · 3.5 km | 0% | 49% | 2.2 |
| Saint-Nazaire-les-Eymes 3,016 · 4 km | 30% | 37% | 3 |
| Villard-Bonnot 7,509 · 4.3 km | 0% | 28% | 1.7 |
| Saint-Ismier 7,165 · 5.4 km | 31% | 40% | 4.5 |
| Le Versoud 4,900 · 7.2 km | 0% | 18% | 3.2 |
Froges and Saint-Ismier 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 Crolles
Is Crolles in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Crolles lies in Chartreuse Regional Nature Park (19% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Crolles?
OpenStreetMap maps 67 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 4.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 11 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Crolles is woodland?
26% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Crolles near the sea?
No: the coast is 207 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Crolles?
April and June 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 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.