First pick
Parc de La Corbillière
Park or garden
2 ha
Centralin the middle of Mer
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Lemerois · CC BY-SA 3.022%of the land protected
Outdoors in Mer · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Mer is within 800 m of a park or wood
Protected areas cover 22% of Mer’s land. Footpaths add up to 20 km across Mer (0.8 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 8.5% of Mer. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
22%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
8.5%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
20 km
0.8 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 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 de La Corbillière
Throughout this page, the Loir-et-Cher 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 Mer 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 areas22%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
79out of 100
Woodland8.5%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
36out of 100
Footpaths0.8 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
24out of 100
Hiking routes0 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
12out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Mer has the 9th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (6,186 to 6,311 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Wimereux (3.9 km per km²) to Livarot-Pays-d'Auge (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wimereux Pas-de-Calais | 3.9 | 3.6% | 100% | On it |
| 2 | Jassans-Riottier Ain | 3.9 | 9.6% | 0% | 274 km |
| 3 | Châtel-Guyon Puy-de-Dôme | 3.5 | 41% | 100% | 273 km |
| 4 | Champagne-au-Mont-d'Or Rhône | 3.3 | 15% | 0% | 255 km |
| 5 | Pont-de-Chéruy Isère | 2.8 | 12% | 0% | 257 km |
| 6 | Thyez Haute-Savoie | 2.7 | 29% | 2.7% | 267 km |
| 7 | Lallaing Nord | 2.7 | 16% | 98% | 89 km |
| 8 | Saint-Pryvé-Saint-Mesmin Loiret | 2.7 | 7% | 20% | 206 km |
| 9 | Louvroil Nord | 2.7 | 5.6% | 0% | 131 km |
| 10 | Cuges-les-Pins Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.6 | 37% | 100% | 10 km |
| 11 | Saint-Quentin-Fallavier Isère | 2.5 | 13% | 0% | 243 km |
| 12 | Solliès-Toucas Var | 2.4 | 61% | 56% | 11 km |
| 13 | Bruguières Haute-Garonne | 2.3 | 11% | 0% | 154 km |
| 14 | Homécourt Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.3 | 28% | 0% | 311 km |
| 15 | Saint-Marcel Saône-et-Loire | 2 | 6% | 0% | 363 km |
| 16 | Avallon Yonne | 1.9 | 45% | 100% | 340 km |
| 17 | Pluneret Morbihan | 1.8 | 19% | 100% | On it |
| 18 | Bonchamp-lès-Laval Mayenne | 1.7 | 1.2% | 0% | 79 km |
| 19 | Châtenoy-le-Royal Saône-et-Loire | 1.5 | 16% | 0% | 364 km |
| 20 | Vaugneray Rhône | 1.5 | 31% | 0% | 246 km |
| 21 | Milhaud Gard | 1.4 | 30% | 8% | 31 km |
| 22 | Pont-Évêque Isère | 1.4 | 17% | 0% | 229 km |
| 23 | Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon Rhône | 1.3 | 7.2% | 0% | 239 km |
| 24 | Mornant Rhône | 1.3 | 6.3% | 0% | 233 km |
| 25 | Vouneuil-sous-Biard Vienne | 1.2 | 28% | 0% | 112 km |
| 26 | Migné-Auxances Vienne | 1.1 | 7.4% | 16% | 116 km |
| 27 | Esvres Indre-et-Loire | 1 | 31% | 0% | 183 km |
| 28 | Mazan Vaucluse | 1 | 13% | 100% | 70 km |
| 29 | Loches Indre-et-Loire | 0.9 | 17% | 5% | 186 km |
| 30 | Terrasson-Lavilledieu Dordogne | 0.9 | 39% | 7.1% | 149 km |
| 31 | Bellevigny Vendée | 0.9 | 7.1% | 0% | 38 km |
| 32 | Noyal-sur-Vilaine Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.8 | 6.9% | 0% | 55 km |
| 33 | Mer Loir-et-Cher | 0.8 | 8.5% | 22% | 211 km |
| 34 | Malaunay Seine-Maritime | 0.7 | 24% | 0% | 43 km |
| 35 | Saint-Martin-de-Seignanx Landes | 0.7 | 51% | 33% | 9.2 km |
| 36 | Guer Morbihan | 0.7 | 20% | 0% | 50 km |
| 37 | Horbourg-Wihr Haut-Rhin | 0.6 | 5% | 0% | 475 km |
| 38 | Belin-Béliet Gironde | 0.4 | 86% | 100% | 26 km |
| 39 | Aire-sur-l'Adour Landes | 0.4 | 22% | 2.6% | 93 km |
| 40 | Fleurance Gers | 0.4 | 10% | 0% | 161 km |
| 41 | Livarot-Pays-d'Auge Calvados | 0.3 | 14% | 0.9% | 38 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 Mer
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc de La Corbillière leads, at 2 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
22% of Mer lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Petite Beauce
22% of the commune2.4 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area22%
Natura 2000 site22%
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.
22% of Mer’s land is protected, more than in 79% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Loir-et-Cher has 6.4%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
20 km of footpaths cross Mer
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
20 km
0.8 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 km
waymarked: 0 km per km²
Woodland
8.5%
about 2.2 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
MerLoir-et-Cher medianFrance median
Footpaths0.8
Hiking routes0
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
MerLoir-et-Cher medianFrance median
Woodland8.5%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 76% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 64% 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 Mer is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Via Turonensis par Orléans, Meung-sur-Loire - Blois6.8 km
Moulin Cavier3.3 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Mer: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at St-Leonard-En-B, 15 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) | 8.8 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 13.6 | 15.1 | 16.0 | 15.6 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.2 | 8.4 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 9 | 13 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 27 | 27 | 23 | 17 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 53 | 46 | 46 | 48 | 61 | 53 | 52 | 44 | 49 | 63 | 63 | 65 |
August is the driest month (44 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 27 °C). 65 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 49 nights a year. The climate in Mer →
Neighbors
Next to Mer
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Saint-Laurent-NouanBeaugencyLailly-en-ValLa Chaussée-Saint-VictorVineuilVillebarouMer
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mer | 22% | 8.5% | 0.8 |
| Saint-Laurent-Nouan 4,236 · 7 km | 26% | 42% | 0.6 |
| Beaugency 8,024 · 13 km | 24% | 6.8% | 1.4 |
| Lailly-en-Val 3,101 · 15 km | 60% | 52% | 0.1 |
| La Chaussée-Saint-Victor 4,471 · 15 km | 8.1% | 11% | 3 |
| Vineuil 8,064 · 16 km | 3.4% | 27% | 1.3 |
| Villebarou 2,584 · 16 km | 89% | 0.5% | 0.8 |
Lailly-en-Val and Villebarou have at least twice as much protected land. Saint-Laurent-Nouan, Lailly-en-Val and Vineuil 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 Mer
Is Mer in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 22% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Mer?
OpenStreetMap maps 20 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.8 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²).
How much of Mer is woodland?
8.5% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Mer near the sea?
No: the coast is 211 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Mer?
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 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.