Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Binnette · CC BY-SA 3.050% of Sassenage’s land lies in protected areas. 48% of Sassenage is mapped woodland. Footpaths add up to 61 km across Sassenage (4.6 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
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.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Sassenage apart: the regional nature park around it, then its woods.
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 (11,411 to 11,896 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Épinay-sous-Sénart (10.3 km per km²) to Baugé-en-Anjou (0.4 km per km²).
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Épinay-sous-Sénart Essonne | 10.3 | 54% | 0% | 171 km |
| 2 | Talant Côte-d'Or | 8 | 5.6% | 0% | 399 km |
| 3 | Seyssinet-Pariset Isère | 6.6 | 60% | 57% | 203 km |
| 4 | Villecresnes Val-de-Marne | 6.5 | 27% | 0% | 170 km |
| 5 | Enghien-les-Bains Val-d'Oise | 5.4 | 0% | 0% | 137 km |
| 6 | Sassenage Isère | 4.6 | 48% | 50% | 205 km |
| 7 | Briançon Hautes-Alpes | 4.4 | 62% | 0% | 142 km |
| 8 | Gravelines Nord | 3.9 | 7.7% | 0% | On it |
| 9 | Gaillard Haute-Savoie | 3.9 | 14% | 8% | 286 km |
| 10 | Hœnheim Bas-Rhin | 3.7 | 0.5% | 0% | 448 km |
| 11 | Dugny Seine-Saint-Denis | 3.5 | 6.8% | 9.5% | 144 km |
| 12 | Arpajon Essonne | 3.3 | 2.4% | 0% | 167 km |
| 13 | Maizières-lès-Metz Moselle | 3.2 | 8.6% | 0% | 319 km |
| 14 | Plan-de-Cuques Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.2 | 0.6% | 59% | 8.8 km |
| 15 | Yvetot Seine-Maritime | 3 | 3.5% | 100% | 28 km |
| 16 | Saint-Germain-lès-Arpajon Essonne | 3 | 16% | 0% | 167 km |
| 17 | Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer Var | 2.9 | 30% | 25% | On it |
| 18 | Dourdan Essonne | 2.8 | 58% | 0% | 157 km |
| 19 | Saint-Estève Pyrénées-Orientales | 2.8 | 2.8% | 0.5% | 16 km |
| 20 | Ploufragan Côtes-d'Armor | 2.5 | 13% | 0.2% | 5.7 km |
| 21 | Saverne Bas-Rhin | 2.5 | 65% | 0% | 418 km |
| 22 | Nœux-les-Mines Pas-de-Calais | 2.4 | 4.6% | 0% | 66 km |
| 23 | Vaux-le-Pénil Seine-et-Marne | 2.4 | 27% | 0% | 194 km |
| 24 | Ancenis-Saint-Géréon Loire-Atlantique | 2.4 | 10% | 27% | 71 km |
| 25 | Pacé Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.2 | 3.6% | 0% | 41 km |
| 26 | Bruay-sur-l'Escaut Nord | 2.1 | 14% | 98% | 102 km |
| 27 | Méricourt Pas-de-Calais | 2 | 4.3% | 0% | 79 km |
| 28 | Les Avirons Réunion | 1.7 | 47% | 78% | On it |
| 29 | Fourmies Nord | 1.6 | 48% | 100% | 157 km |
| 30 | Provins Seine-et-Marne | 1.6 | 6.6% | 0% | 215 km |
| 31 | Bolbec Seine-Maritime | 1.5 | 7.1% | 0% | 17 km |
| 32 | Somain Nord | 1.4 | 5.2% | 1.3% | 96 km |
| 33 | Chauny Aisne | 1.2 | 5.7% | 10% | 127 km |
| 34 | Biganos Gironde | 1.1 | 71% | 100% | On it |
| 35 | Thiers Puy-de-Dôme | 1 | 43% | 100% | 259 km |
| 36 | La Hague Manche | 1 | 5.5% | 14% | On it |
| 37 | Saint-Junien Haute-Vienne | 0.8 | 17% | 0% | 139 km |
| 38 | Pontchâteau Loire-Atlantique | 0.6 | 9.4% | 24% | 16 km |
| 39 | Pia Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.5 | 0.2% | 0% | 10 km |
| 40 | Vauvert Gard | 0.4 | 3.1% | 71% | 20 km |
| 41 | Baugé-en-Anjou Maine-et-Loire | 0.4 | 31% | 0.5% | 151 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: Forêt communale de Fontaine leads, at 156 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.
50% of Sassenage’s land is protected, more than in 87% 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.
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 88% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 91% 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 Sassenage is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Chatte_Sapc, 29 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 | 14.8 | 15.6 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.9 | 9.4 | 8.8 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 9 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 26 | 28 | 28 | 23 | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 66 | 54 | 64 | 84 | 96 | 81 | 68 | 82 | 101 | 108 | 99 | 66 |
February is the driest month (54 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 28 °C). 108 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 67 nights a year. The climate in Sassenage →
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sassenage | 50% | 48% | 4.6 |
| Fontaine 22,020 · 2.7 km | 39% | 37% | 8.1 |
| Saint-Égrève 17,986 · 3.2 km | 30% | 22% | 5.8 |
| Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux 6,078 · 3.2 km | 71% | 52% | 5.7 |
| Seyssinet-Pariset 11,739 · 4.2 km | 57% | 60% | 6.6 |
| Fontanil-Cornillon 3,404 · 4.8 km | 36% | 42% | 3.5 |
| Seyssins 8,092 · 5.6 km | 45% | 44% | 7.1 |
Yes: Sassenage lies in Vercors Regional Nature Park (50% of the commune).
OpenStreetMap maps 61 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); 20 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
48% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
No: the coast is 205 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
April and June to August: 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 9, 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.