First pick
Espace naturel sensible de La Rolande
Wood or forest
47 ha4.7 km of path
1 hto walk all 4.7 km of path
3.9 km south-westfrom the center
sentier botanique de la Rolande et du MaupasBella Via Rive gauche
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Matthieu Riegler · CC BY 3.039%woodland
Outdoors in Pontcharra · protected areas, woods and footpaths
39% of Pontcharra is woodland, more than in 8 in 10 French towns
No protected area reaches Pontcharra; the nearest, Chartreuse Regional Nature Park, is 2 km from the town center. Pontcharra has 9 km of waymarked hiking routes. 32 km of footpaths cross Pontcharra (2 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Chartreuse Regional Nature Park, 2 km
Woodland
39%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
32 km
2 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
9 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: Espace naturel sensible de La Rolande
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.
What kind of place
What kind of outdoors place is Pontcharra?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A wooded commune39% mapped woodland, more than in 84% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.Protected land nearbyChartreuse Regional Nature Park is 2 km from the town center.
What sets Pontcharra apart: its woods, then protected land close by.
Against French towns
How Pontcharra 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%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
22out of 100
Woodland39%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
84out of 100
Footpaths2 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
57out of 100
Hiking routes0.6 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
65out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Pontcharra has the 20th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (7,266 to 7,435 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Gières (7.2 km per km²) to Lanton (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gières Isère | 7.2 | 35% | 0% | 202 km |
| 2 | Gournay-sur-Marne Seine-Saint-Denis | 6 | 4.3% | 0% | 159 km |
| 3 | Villemoisson-sur-Orge Essonne | 4.3 | 13% | 0% | 167 km |
| 4 | Lisses Essonne | 3.8 | 22% | 2.9% | 176 km |
| 5 | Soisy-sur-Seine Essonne | 3.6 | 64% | 0% | 173 km |
| 6 | Remiremont Vosges | 3.5 | 70% | 18% | 432 km |
| 7 | Cournonterral Hérault | 3.4 | 3.1% | 62% | 13 km |
| 8 | Roquefort-les-Pins Alpes-Maritimes | 3.3 | 52% | 15% | 8 km |
| 9 | Saint-Benoît Vienne | 3.3 | 25% | 0% | 116 km |
| 10 | Audun-le-Tiche Moselle | 3 | 42% | 0% | 288 km |
| 11 | Courdimanche Val-d'Oise | 3 | 17% | 0% | 118 km |
| 12 | Barlin Pas-de-Calais | 2.9 | 5.8% | 0% | 65 km |
| 13 | Perros-Guirec Côtes-d'Armor | 2.9 | 17% | 7% | On it |
| 14 | Vizille Isère | 2.8 | 48% | 0% | 193 km |
| 15 | Saint-Didier-au-Mont-d'Or Rhône | 2.7 | 20% | 0% | 256 km |
| 16 | Courtry Seine-et-Marne | 2.5 | 19% | 0% | 155 km |
| 17 | Moyeuvre-Grande Moselle | 2.4 | 45% | 0% | 310 km |
| 18 | Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis Yvelines | 2.2 | 13% | 100% | 140 km |
| 19 | Waziers Nord | 2.2 | 4.9% | 0% | 88 km |
| 20 | Pontcharra Isère | 2 | 39% | 0% | 217 km |
| 21 | Carhaix-Plouguer Finistère | 1.9 | 12% | 0% | 40 km |
| 22 | Paimpol Côtes-d'Armor | 1.9 | 12% | 12% | On it |
| 23 | Nanteuil-lès-Meaux Seine-et-Marne | 1.9 | 26% | 0% | 164 km |
| 24 | Bourg-Saint-Maurice Savoie | 1.8 | 15% | 0.4% | 211 km |
| 25 | Le Pian-Médoc Gironde | 1.6 | 60% | 100% | 8.2 km |
| 26 | Fresnes-sur-Escaut Nord | 1.5 | 24% | 100% | 100 km |
| 27 | Langres Haute-Marne | 1.2 | 9.7% | 0.1% | 371 km |
| 28 | Yssingeaux Haute-Loire | 1.2 | 39% | 15% | 176 km |
| 29 | Saint-Christol-lez-Alès Gard | 1.2 | 21% | 0% | 57 km |
| 30 | Lagnieu Ain | 1.1 | 35% | 0% | 274 km |
| 31 | Montoir-de-Bretagne Loire-Atlantique | 0.9 | 0.2% | 50% | On it |
| 32 | Trélissac Dordogne | 0.9 | 43% | 0% | 109 km |
| 33 | Saint-Nicolas-de-Port Meurthe-et-Moselle | 0.9 | 11% | 0% | 376 km |
| 34 | Salazie Réunion | 0.9 | 63% | 100% | 16 km |
| 35 | Ruelle-sur-Touvre Charente | 0.8 | 6.5% | 8% | 81 km |
| 36 | Digoin Saône-et-Loire | 0.8 | 12% | 6.1% | 325 km |
| 37 | Rosny-sur-Seine Yvelines | 0.7 | 60% | 62% | 104 km |
| 38 | Ensisheim Haut-Rhin | 0.6 | 35% | 21% | 453 km |
| 39 | Guipry-Messac Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.5 | 8.9% | 0% | 55 km |
| 40 | La Ferté-Saint-Aubin Loiret | 0.4 | 68% | 100% | 224 km |
| 41 | Lanton Gironde | 0.2 | 83% | 100% | On it |
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 Pontcharra
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Espace naturel sensible de La Rolande leads, at 47 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc Saint-Exupéry
Park or garden
2.1 ha0.8 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.8 km of path
Centralin the middle of Pontcharra
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Chartreuse Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 2 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
Chartreuse Regional Nature Park
2 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0%
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.
Footpaths and woods
32 km of footpaths and 9 km of hiking routes cross Pontcharra
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
32 km
2 km per km²
Hiking routes
9 km
waymarked: 0.6 km per km²
Woodland
39%
about 6.2 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
PontcharraIsère medianFrance median
Footpaths2
Hiking routes0.6
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
PontcharraIsère medianFrance median
Woodland39%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 57% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 84% 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 Pontcharra is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
4 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 9653.2 km
Randonnée des Hameaux5.2 km
Chemin de Szombathely, Moûtiers - Pontcharra4.8 km
Chemin de Szombathely, Pontcharra - Saint-Pierre de Paladru4.4 km
GR 965 passes within 2 km of Pontcharra.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Pontcharra: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at St-Pierre de Soucy, 8.1 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 | 13.5 | 14.9 | 15.6 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.4 | 8.7 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 8 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 26 | 28 | 27 | 22 | 17 | 10 | 6 |
| Rain (mm) | 98 | 73 | 85 | 80 | 98 | 97 | 95 | 94 | 89 | 95 | 107 | 112 |
February is the driest month (73 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 28 °C). 112 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 79 nights a year. The climate in Pontcharra →
Neighbors
Next to Pontcharra
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
ChapareillanAllevardCrêts en BelledonnePorte-de-SavoieValgelon-La RochetteMontmélianPontcharra
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pontcharra | 0% | 39% | 2 |
| Chapareillan 3,065 · 4.7 km | 98% | 57% | 2.2 |
| Allevard 3,971 · 6.1 km | 0% | 55% | 2 |
| Crêts en Belledonne 3,470 · 7.1 km | 0% | 70% | 2.2 |
| Porte-de-Savoie 3,974 · 7.5 km | 86% | 18% | 1.4 |
| Valgelon-La Rochette 4,207 · 8.2 km | 0.6% | 31% | 1.6 |
| Montmélian 4,024 · 8.3 km | 100% | 47% | 4.3 |
Chapareillan, Porte-de-Savoie and Montmélian have at least twice as much protected land. Crêts en Belledonne 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 Pontcharra
Is Pontcharra in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Chartreuse Regional Nature Park, 2 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Pontcharra?
OpenStreetMap maps 32 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 9 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Pontcharra is woodland?
39% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Pontcharra near the sea?
No: the coast is 217 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Pontcharra?
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 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.