First pick
Bois de Mérode
Wood or forest
136 ha2.3 km of path
30 minto walk all 2.3 km of path
4 km southfrom the center
Chemin des ChênesChemin de Mérode
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Cavit · CC BY 4.030%woodland
Outdoors in Vienne · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Vienne is within 800 m of a park or wood
Mapped woodland covers 30% of Vienne. 58 km of footpaths cross Vienne (2.6 km per km²). No protected area reaches Vienne; the nearest, Pilat Regional Nature Park, is 0.6 km from the town center. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0.1%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Pilat Regional Nature Park, 0.6 km
Woodland
30%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
58 km
2.6 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
8
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Bois de Mérode
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 Vienne?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A wooded commune30% mapped woodland, more than in 77% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.Protected land nearbyPilat Regional Nature Park is 0.6 km from the town center.
What sets Vienne apart: its woods, then protected land close by.
Against French towns
How Vienne 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 areas0.1%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
51out of 100
Woodland30%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
77out of 100
Footpaths2.6 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
67out of 100
Hiking routes0.5 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
61out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Vienne has the 10th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (30,063 to 33,464 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Cachan (11.5 km per km²) to Carpentras (1.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cachan Val-de-Marne | 11.5 | 1.2% | 0% | 155 km |
| 2 | Montigny-le-Bretonneux Yvelines | 10 | 18% | 4.9% | 143 km |
| 3 | Tournefeuille Haute-Garonne | 7.5 | 9.4% | 0% | 153 km |
| 4 | L'Haÿ-les-Roses Val-de-Marne | 7.5 | 4% | 0% | 156 km |
| 5 | Thiais Val-de-Marne | 7.3 | 5.4% | 0% | 160 km |
| 6 | Savigny-le-Temple Seine-et-Marne | 6.5 | 15% | 0% | 183 km |
| 7 | Paris 3e Paris | 6.4 | 0.1% | 0% | 149 km |
| 8 | Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt Yvelines | 6.3 | 21% | 0% | 144 km |
| 9 | Pontoise Val-d'Oise | 6.2 | 11% | 0.5% | 121 km |
| 10 | Malakoff Hauts-de-Seine | 5.6 | 0% | 0% | 151 km |
| 11 | Plaisir Yvelines | 5.5 | 26% | 0% | 135 km |
| 12 | Viry-Châtillon Essonne | 5.4 | 4.4% | 0% | 168 km |
| 13 | Bègles Gironde | 5.3 | 5.5% | 8.9% | 23 km |
| 14 | Agen Lot-et-Garonne | 5 | 4.9% | 3.6% | 132 km |
| 15 | Liévin Pas-de-Calais | 4.7 | 5.2% | 0% | 74 km |
| 16 | Draveil Essonne | 4.6 | 47% | 0% | 168 km |
| 17 | Ris-Orangis Essonne | 4.6 | 7.7% | 0% | 171 km |
| 18 | Lens Pas-de-Calais | 4.6 | 6.4% | 0% | 74 km |
| 19 | Chatou Yvelines | 4.5 | 0.3% | 0% | 138 km |
| 20 | Nogent-sur-Marne Val-de-Marne | 4.4 | 2.8% | 0% | 157 km |
| 21 | Vigneux-sur-Seine Essonne | 4.3 | 21% | 0% | 167 km |
| 22 | Aix-les-Bains Savoie | 3.9 | 14% | 20% | 246 km |
| 23 | Épinal Vosges | 3.7 | 67% | 0% | 413 km |
| 24 | Rillieux-la-Pape Rhône | 3.5 | 16% | 6.1% | 259 km |
| 25 | Menton Alpes-Maritimes | 3.5 | 32% | 20% | On it |
| 26 | Nevers Nièvre | 3.3 | 1.2% | 11% | 336 km |
| 27 | Villiers-sur-Marne Val-de-Marne | 3 | 2% | 0% | 160 km |
| 28 | Cambrai Nord | 2.8 | 4.5% | 0% | 111 km |
| 29 | Herblay-sur-Seine Val-d'Oise | 2.7 | 10% | 0% | 128 km |
| 30 | Dreux Eure-et-Loir | 2.7 | 24% | 2.4% | 107 km |
| 31 | Bourgoin-Jallieu Isère | 2.7 | 13% | 0% | 240 km |
| 32 | Vienne Isère | 2.6 | 30% | 0.1% | 227 km |
| 33 | Montluçon Allier | 2.4 | 7.5% | 2.3% | 279 km |
| 34 | La Garenne-Colombes Hauts-de-Seine | 2.2 | 0% | 0% | 141 km |
| 35 | Saint-Laurent-du-Var Alpes-Maritimes | 2.2 | 6.3% | 8.8% | On it |
| 36 | Mont-de-Marsan Landes | 2.1 | 33% | 4.9% | 70 km |
| 37 | Goussainville Val-d'Oise | 1.7 | 2.8% | 0% | 139 km |
| 38 | Romans-sur-Isère Drôme | 1.7 | 11% | 12% | 178 km |
| 39 | Saint-Médard-en-Jalles Gironde | 1.7 | 46% | 4.4% | 17 km |
| 40 | Châtellerault Vienne | 1.6 | 4.3% | 0% | 140 km |
| 41 | Carpentras Vaucluse | 1.1 | 6% | 64% | 69 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 Vienne
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois de Mérode leads, at 136 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Bois de Combaudon
Wood or forest
60 ha7.2 km of path
1 h 35 minto walk all 7.2 km of path
2.7 km eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Parc de la Maison Blanche
Park or garden · 120 m outside the commune
1.7 ha0.6 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.6 km of path
2.4 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Jardin du 8 Mai 1945
Park or garden
1.1 ha0.9 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.9 km of path
0.9 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Jardin de Cybèle
Park or garden
0.6 ha0.4 km of path
Centralin the middle of Vienne
Directionsto a point inside
Square André Berthelon
Park or garden
0.5 ha0.3 km of path
1.9 km north-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Parc des Petits Jardins
Park or garden · 120 m outside the commune
0.4 ha0.3 km of path
1 km westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Pilat Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 0.6 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
Pilat Regional Nature Park
0.6 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0.1%
Regional nature park0.1%
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.
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
58 km of footpaths and 11 km of hiking routes cross Vienne
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
58 km
2.6 km per km²
Hiking routes
11 km
waymarked: 0.5 km per km²
Woodland
30%
about 6.9 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
VienneIsère medianFrance median
Footpaths2.6
Hiking routes0.5
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
VienneIsère medianFrance median
Woodland30%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 67% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 77% 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 Vienne 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 42214 km
Chemin de Szombathely, Saint-Pierre de Paladru - Vienne8 km
Vossères - Croix des Chasseurs - fixme4.5 km
Vossères - Vienne Malissol - fixme2.2 km
Vossères - le télégraphe - fixme0.3 km
GR 422 passes within 2 km of Vienne.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Vienne: April and June to August
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Lyon-Bron, 22 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 | 15.7 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.4 | 8.7 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 9 | 14 | 17 | 22 | 26 | 28 | 28 | 23 | 18 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 50 | 42 | 49 | 69 | 81 | 74 | 67 | 66 | 83 | 100 | 87 | 54 |
February is the driest month (42 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 28 °C). 100 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 42 nights a year. The climate in Vienne →
Neighbors
Next to Vienne
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Pont-ÉvêqueAmpuisEstrablinLoire-sur-RhôneChasse-sur-RhôneCommunayVienne
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vienne | 0.1% | 30% | 2.6 |
| Pont-Évêque 6,213 · 3 km | 0% | 17% | 1.4 |
| Ampuis 2,769 · 6.3 km | 95% | 36% | 1.7 |
| Estrablin 3,677 · 6.5 km | 0% | 8.8% | 0.3 |
| Loire-sur-Rhône 2,746 · 7 km | 84% | 44% | 1.9 |
| Chasse-sur-Rhône 6,588 · 8.5 km | 0% | 12% | 2.2 |
| Communay 4,540 · 9.4 km | 0% | 13% | 1.8 |
Ampuis and Loire-sur-Rhône have at least twice as much protected land.
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 Vienne
Is Vienne in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Pilat Regional Nature Park, 0.6 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Vienne?
OpenStreetMap maps 58 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 11 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Vienne is woodland?
30% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Vienne near the sea?
No: the coast is 227 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Vienne?
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.