First pick
Parc de Sous-Paulat
Park or garden
2.4 ha1.2 km of path
15 minto walk all 1.2 km of path
0.6 km westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Fotograf unbekannt, Edition Girond, Firminy. · Public domain25%woodland
Outdoors in Firminy · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Parks, woods and footpaths in Firminy
Footpaths add up to 32 km across Firminy (3 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 25% of Firminy. No protected area reaches Firminy; the nearest, Gorges de la Loire nature reserve, is 3.6 km from the town center. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Gorges de la Loire nature reserve, 3.6 km
Woodland
25%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
32 km
3 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
2.7 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Green space nearby
92%
of residents within 800 m of a park or wood
Compared town: 100%
Throughout this page, the Loire 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 Firminy 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
Woodland25%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
70out of 100
Footpaths3 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
74out of 100
Hiking routes0.3 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
42out of 100
Green space nearby92%Share of residents within 800 m of a mapped park or wood
10out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Firminy has the 16th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (16,473 to 17,667 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Viroflay (9.5 km per km²) to Marmande (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viroflay Yvelines | 9.5 | 42% | 0% | 148 km |
| 2 | Marly-le-Roi Yvelines | 7.6 | 37% | 0% | 138 km |
| 3 | Bois-d'Arcy Yvelines | 7.4 | 38% | 0% | 140 km |
| 4 | Orsay Essonne | 7.3 | 27% | 0% | 157 km |
| 5 | Les Clayes-sous-Bois Yvelines | 6.3 | 35% | 0% | 137 km |
| 6 | Le Pré-Saint-Gervais Seine-Saint-Denis | 5.8 | 0% | 0% | 149 km |
| 7 | L'Isle-d'Abeau Isère | 5.2 | 9.8% | 0% | 242 km |
| 8 | Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire Indre-et-Loire | 5 | 9.4% | 1.9% | 184 km |
| 9 | Villeneuve-Loubet Alpes-Maritimes | 5 | 30% | 16% | On it |
| 10 | Lons-le-Saunier Jura | 4.9 | 8.8% | 1.8% | 356 km |
| 11 | Boissy-Saint-Léger Val-de-Marne | 4.4 | 50% | 0% | 166 km |
| 12 | Chamalières Puy-de-Dôme | 4.1 | 3.4% | 0.1% | 258 km |
| 13 | Saran Loiret | 3.9 | 24% | 0% | 200 km |
| 14 | Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle Loiret | 3.5 | 4.9% | 3% | 203 km |
| 15 | Avion Pas-de-Calais | 3.4 | 13% | 0% | 77 km |
| 16 | Firminy Loire | 3 | 25% | 0% | 204 km |
| 17 | Yutz Moselle | 2.6 | 18% | 0% | 310 km |
| 18 | Annonay Ardèche | 2.3 | 30% | 0.2% | 193 km |
| 19 | Fécamp Seine-Maritime | 2.2 | 25% | 2.9% | On it |
| 20 | Lattes Hérault | 2.2 | 0.8% | 22% | 5.5 km |
| 21 | Sedan Ardennes | 2 | 17% | 0% | 222 km |
| 22 | Sallanches Haute-Savoie | 2 | 32% | 35% | 250 km |
| 23 | Montceau-les-Mines Saône-et-Loire | 1.8 | 6.6% | 0% | 347 km |
| 24 | La Baule-Escoublac Loire-Atlantique | 1.7 | 9.6% | 37% | 0.8 km |
| 25 | Valserhône Ain | 1.7 | 59% | 19% | 292 km |
| 26 | Blanquefort Gironde | 1.7 | 15% | 7.6% | 11 km |
| 27 | Guérande Loire-Atlantique | 1.5 | 7.1% | 76% | On it |
| 28 | Verdun Meuse | 1.4 | 21% | 3.6% | 290 km |
| 29 | Les Herbiers Vendée | 1.1 | 6.5% | 0% | 62 km |
| 30 | Cestas Gironde | 1 | 58% | 0% | 28 km |
| 31 | Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne Mayenne | 0.9 | 3.1% | 0% | 102 km |
| 32 | Châteaurenard Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.8 | 2.1% | 8.3% | 47 km |
| 33 | Mauguio Hérault | 0.8 | 1.4% | 49% | On it |
| 34 | Lamballe-Armor Côtes-d'Armor | 0.8 | 5% | 2% | On it |
| 35 | Pamiers Ariège | 0.6 | 16% | 1.1% | 118 km |
| 36 | Vire Normandie Calvados | 0.6 | 3.9% | 0% | 41 km |
| 37 | Orée d'Anjou Maine-et-Loire | 0.5 | 11% | 12% | 66 km |
| 38 | Segré-en-Anjou Bleu Maine-et-Loire | 0.5 | 4.6% | 0% | 108 km |
| 39 | Loire-Authion Maine-et-Loire | 0.4 | 10% | 100% | 130 km |
| 40 | Ambarès-et-Lagrave Gironde | 0.4 | 4.8% | 35% | 11 km |
| 41 | Marmande Lot-et-Garonne | 0.3 | 11% | 4% | 82 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 Firminy
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc de Sous-Paulat leads, at 2.4 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc Vincent Brunon
Park or garden
0.9 ha0.5 km of path
Centralin the middle of Firminy
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Close to home
9 in 10 residents of Firminy 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).
92% within 800 m7.5% further
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
FirminyLoire medianFrance median
Within 800 m92%
0%50%100%
About 1,300 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.
Protected areas
Gorges de la Loire nature reserve is the nearest protected area, 3.6 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Nature reserve
Gorges de la Loire nature reserve
3.6 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 cross Firminy
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
3 km per km²
Hiking routes
2.7 km
waymarked: 0.3 km per km²
Woodland
25%
about 2.6 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
FirminyLoire medianFrance median
Footpaths3
Hiking routes0.3
024 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
FirminyLoire medianFrance median
Woodland25%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 74% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 70% 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
Other named walk
Parcours des six troncs2.7 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Firminy: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Bas-En-Basset, 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) | 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) | 8 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 26 | 28 | 28 | 23 | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 43 | 32 | 37 | 60 | 83 | 77 | 76 | 71 | 75 | 80 | 76 | 44 |
February is the driest month (32 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 28 °C). 83 mm of rain falls in May, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 95 nights a year. The climate in Firminy →
Neighbors
Next to Firminy
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
FraissesUnieuxLe Chambon-FeugerollesSaint-Just-MalmontRoche-la-MolièreLa RicamarieFirminy
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firminy | 0% | 25% | 3 |
| Fraisses 3,872 · 1.8 km | 0% | 33% | 2.7 |
| Unieux 8,514 · 2.2 km | 16% | 23% | 1.5 |
| Le Chambon-Feugerolles 12,314 · 3.2 km | 0.1% | 43% | 2.8 |
| Saint-Just-Malmont 4,239 · 5.2 km | 0.3% | 47% | 1.3 |
| Roche-la-Molière 9,843 · 5.4 km | 0% | 8.5% | 1.8 |
| La Ricamarie 8,039 · 6.3 km | 3.2% | 20% | 2.8 |
Unieux has at least twice as much protected land. Le Chambon-Feugerolles and Saint-Just-Malmont 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 Firminy
Is Firminy in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Gorges de la Loire nature reserve, 3.6 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Firminy?
OpenStreetMap maps 32 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 3 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Firminy is woodland?
25% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Firminy near the sea?
No: the coast is 204 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Firminy?
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.