Photo: Clémenceau Lauret · CC BY 4.0Saint-André is on the coast
31% of Saint-André’s land lies in protected areas. 34 km of footpaths cross Saint-André (0.6 km per km²). 16% of Saint-André is mapped woodland. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Réunion 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 Saint-André?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Saint-André apart: the sea, then its share of Réunion National Park. It is shorter on footpaths.
How Saint-André 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.
Saint-André has the fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (53,757 to 64,458 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Paris 5e (12.9 km per km²) to Saint-André (0.6 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris 5e Paris | 12.9 | 1% | 0% | 151 km |
| 2 | Marseille 10e Bouches-du-Rhône | 10.6 | 23% | 37% | 4 km |
| 3 | Maisons-Alfort Val-de-Marne | 10.3 | 2.1% | 0% | 158 km |
| 4 | Clamart Hauts-de-Seine | 8.4 | 26% | 0% | 151 km |
| 5 | Pantin Seine-Saint-Denis | 8.3 | 1.9% | 0% | 148 km |
| 6 | Villeneuve-d'Ascq Nord | 7.6 | 8% | 2.3% | 65 km |
| 7 | Villejuif Val-de-Marne | 7.4 | 1% | 0% | 156 km |
| 8 | Bobigny Seine-Saint-Denis | 7.3 | 0.3% | 0% | 149 km |
| 9 | Fontenay-sous-Bois Val-de-Marne | 6.4 | 1.4% | 0% | 155 km |
| 10 | Antony Hauts-de-Seine | 6.2 | 4.8% | 0.6% | 157 km |
| 11 | Chambéry Savoie | 6 | 15% | 1.5% | 235 km |
| 12 | Paris 9e Paris | 5.1 | 0% | 0% | 147 km |
| 13 | Meaux Seine-et-Marne | 5.1 | 7.8% | 5.5% | 162 km |
| 14 | Marseille 3e Bouches-du-Rhône | 5.1 | 0% | 0% | 1.1 km |
| 15 | Chelles Seine-et-Marne | 5 | 9.3% | 0.8% | 158 km |
| 16 | Sarcelles Val-d'Oise | 4.9 | 6.9% | 0% | 139 km |
| 17 | Clichy Hauts-de-Seine | 4.6 | 0.6% | 0% | 143 km |
| 18 | Lorient Morbihan | 4.6 | 1.8% | 0.6% | On it |
| 19 | Le Blanc-Mesnil Seine-Saint-Denis | 4.6 | 2.1% | 0% | 147 km |
| 20 | Vannes Morbihan | 4.6 | 12% | 33% | On it |
| 21 | Neuilly-sur-Seine Hauts-de-Seine | 4.4 | 0.1% | 0% | 143 km |
| 22 | Marseille 14e Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.9 | 1.4% | 23% | 2.7 km |
| 23 | Bayonne Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 3.9 | 23% | 17% | 5.5 km |
| 24 | Troyes Aube | 3.7 | 1.2% | 0% | 272 km |
| 25 | Marseille 11e Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.3 | 43% | 42% | 7.5 km |
| 26 | Beauvais Oise | 3.3 | 12% | 0.1% | 87 km |
| 27 | Fréjus Var | 3.1 | 48% | 33% | On it |
| 28 | Corbeil-Essonnes Essonne | 3 | 5.5% | 0% | 178 km |
| 29 | Hyères Var | 3 | 25% | 83% | On it |
| 30 | La Seyne-sur-Mer Var | 2.9 | 21% | 15% | On it |
| 31 | Quimper Finistère | 2.9 | 25% | 0% | On it |
| 32 | Marseille 12e Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.7 | 6.8% | 0% | 5.2 km |
| 33 | Bourges Cher | 2.3 | 4.9% | 0.4% | 283 km |
| 34 | La Roche-sur-Yon Vendée | 2.2 | 7.5% | 0% | 30 km |
| 35 | Valence Drôme | 2.1 | 3.3% | 0% | 164 km |
| 36 | Niort Deux-Sèvres | 2 | 6.2% | 100% | 51 km |
| 37 | Cholet Maine-et-Loire | 1.7 | 4.1% | 0% | 84 km |
| 38 | Narbonne Aude | 1.2 | 11% | 63% | On it |
| 39 | Saint-Louis Réunion | 0.8 | 48% | 66% | On it |
| 40 | Montauban Tarn-et-Garonne | 0.8 | 5.4% | 1.3% | 175 km |
| 41 | Saint-André Réunion | 0.6 | 16% | 31% | On it |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
4 in 10 residents of Saint-André live within 800 m of a park or wood
Each square is 1 resident in 100: in green, those within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or woodland edge (INSEE’s 200 m population grid against OpenStreetMap).
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
About 34,000 residents live further away. The distance is a straight line to the edge of a mapped park or wood, not a walk to a gate, and a wood can be private.
31% of Saint-André lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Réunion National Park
Réunion National Park
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.
31% of Saint-André’s land is protected, more than in 83% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Réunion has 69%. A national park’s outer area (aire d’adhésion) is made of the communes that signed the park’s charter: it guides how they grow, but it isn’t strict protection like the core. Natura 2000 doesn’t apply in the overseas départements.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
34 km of footpaths cross Saint-André
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 less than in 82% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 56% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
A named hiking route within 2 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Saint-André: October and November
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Menciol, 3.4 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) | 13.3 | 12.8 | 12.3 | 11.6 | 11.1 | 10.9 | 11.0 | 11.4 | 12.0 | 12.6 | 13.1 | 13.4 |
| High (°C) | 29 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 25 | 24 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 29 |
| Rain (mm) | 482 | 534 | 523 | 327 | 264 | 190 | 177 | 170 | 135 | 129 | 159 | 322 |
October is the driest month (129 mm) and February the warmest (highs of 30 °C). 534 mm of rain falls in February, the wettest month. The climate in Saint-André →
Next to Saint-André
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-André | 31% | 16% | 0.6 | On it |
| Bras-Panon 13,012 · 4.9 km | 83% | 69% | 0.6 | On it |
| Sainte-Suzanne 25,551 · 6 km | 49% | 31% | 0.4 | On it |
| Saint-Benoît 38,604 · 12 km | 78% | 59% | 0.4 | On it |
| Sainte-Marie 37,093 · 13 km | 60% | 50% | 0.7 | On it |
| Salazie 7,268 · 17 km | 100% | 63% | 0.9 | 16 km |
| La Plaine-des-Palmistes 6,936 · 21 km | 100% | 64% | 0.5 | 14 km |
Bras-Panon, Saint-Benoît and Salazie have at least twice as much protected land. Bras-Panon, Sainte-Suzanne and Saint-Benoît are more wooded.
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 Saint-André
Is Saint-André in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Saint-André lies in Réunion National Park (4.5% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Saint-André?
OpenStreetMap maps 34 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²).
How much of Saint-André is woodland?
16% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Saint-André near the sea?
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 2.7 km from its center.
When is the best time for walking in Saint-André?
October and November: 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.