First pick
Parc Fraisse
Park or garden
8.7 ha1.7 km of path
20 minto walk all 1.7 km of path
0.8 km south-westfrom the center
Allée du Château
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Nanzig · CC BY-SA 4.014%woodland
Outdoors in Sorbiers · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Sorbiers is within 800 m of a park or wood
No protected area reaches Sorbiers; the nearest, Pilat Regional Nature Park, is 5.4 km from the town center. Footpaths add up to 22 km across Sorbiers (1.8 km per km²). 14% of Sorbiers is mapped woodland. 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: Pilat Regional Nature Park, 5.4 km
Woodland
14%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
22 km
1.8 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
5
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc Fraisse
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 Sorbiers 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
Woodland14%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
51out of 100
Footpaths1.8 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
53out 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
Sorbiers has the 16th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (8,007 to 8,219 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Seyssins (7.1 km per km²) to Donges (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seyssins Isère | 7.1 | 44% | 45% | 201 km |
| 2 | Boussy-Saint-Antoine Essonne | 6.6 | 28% | 0% | 172 km |
| 3 | Coulaines Sarthe | 5.4 | 5.5% | 0% | 134 km |
| 4 | La Ville-du-Bois Essonne | 4.4 | 28% | 0% | 164 km |
| 5 | Paray-Vieille-Poste Essonne | 3.9 | 0.4% | 0% | 164 km |
| 6 | Mazingarbe Pas-de-Calais | 2.9 | 7.4% | 0% | 68 km |
| 7 | Ballancourt-sur-Essonne Essonne | 2.9 | 28% | 0.1% | 179 km |
| 8 | Vern-sur-Seiche Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.9 | 13% | 0% | 57 km |
| 9 | La Ricamarie Loire | 2.8 | 20% | 3.2% | 206 km |
| 10 | Wintzenheim Haut-Rhin | 2.8 | 51% | 100% | 471 km |
| 11 | Guénange Moselle | 2.7 | 24% | 0% | 315 km |
| 12 | Le Mesnil-Esnard Seine-Maritime | 2.6 | 16% | 0% | 57 km |
| 13 | Rochefort-du-Gard Gard | 2.6 | 40% | 0% | 59 km |
| 14 | Cavalaire-sur-Mer Var | 1.8 | 45% | 0.1% | On it |
| 15 | Aureilhan Hautes-Pyrénées | 1.8 | 12% | 0.7% | 133 km |
| 16 | Sorbiers Loire | 1.8 | 14% | 0% | 217 km |
| 17 | Verrières-en-Anjou Maine-et-Loire | 1.8 | 7.4% | 0% | 127 km |
| 18 | Saint-Vincent-de-Tyrosse Landes | 1.8 | 51% | 0% | 11 km |
| 19 | Val de Briey Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.7 | 55% | 0% | 305 km |
| 20 | Anse Rhône | 1.7 | 16% | 0% | 269 km |
| 21 | La Colle-sur-Loup Alpes-Maritimes | 1.7 | 39% | 28% | 5.1 km |
| 22 | Champagnole Jura | 1.7 | 48% | 0% | 352 km |
| 23 | Vaujours Seine-Saint-Denis | 1.7 | 26% | 0.9% | 152 km |
| 24 | Talange Moselle | 1.6 | 2.5% | 0% | 318 km |
| 25 | Beaugency Loiret | 1.4 | 6.8% | 24% | 206 km |
| 26 | Tignieu-Jameyzieu Isère | 1.4 | 11% | 0% | 255 km |
| 27 | Vineuil Loir-et-Cher | 1.3 | 27% | 3.4% | 219 km |
| 28 | La Tour-du-Pin Isère | 1.2 | 4.7% | 0% | 240 km |
| 29 | Les Arcs Var | 1.1 | 35% | 12% | 21 km |
| 30 | Gleizé Rhône | 1.1 | 7.7% | 0% | 275 km |
| 31 | Martignas-sur-Jalle Gironde | 1.1 | 48% | 2.8% | 23 km |
| 32 | Linselles Nord | 1 | 0.7% | 0% | 53 km |
| 33 | Chinon Indre-et-Loire | 1 | 15% | 100% | 142 km |
| 34 | Bellegarde Gard | 0.7 | 5.7% | 13% | 33 km |
| 35 | Jarny Meurthe-et-Moselle | 0.7 | 12% | 48% | 311 km |
| 36 | Questembert Morbihan | 0.6 | 19% | 0% | 16 km |
| 37 | Languidic Morbihan | 0.6 | 24% | 0% | 9 km |
| 38 | Monts Indre-et-Loire | 0.5 | 28% | 0% | 173 km |
| 39 | Salles Gironde | 0.5 | 86% | 100% | 17 km |
| 40 | Le Malesherbois Loiret | 0.3 | 11% | 3.6% | 196 km |
| 41 | Donges Loire-Atlantique | 0.3 | 2.8% | 58% | 8.5 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 Sorbiers
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc Fraisse leads, at 8.7 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc de la Mairie
Park or garden · 310 m outside the commune
2.5 ha1.2 km of path
15 minto walk all 1.2 km of path
1.5 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Jardins de la Chazotte
Park or garden · 350 m outside the commune
0.3 ha
1.9 km southfrom 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, 5.4 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
5.4 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
22 km of footpaths cross Sorbiers
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
22 km
1.8 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 km
waymarked: 0 km per km²
Woodland
14%
about 1.7 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
SorbiersLoire medianFrance median
Footpaths1.8
Hiking routes0
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
SorbiersLoire medianFrance median
Woodland14%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 53% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 51% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 96% of Sorbiers’ residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Sorbiers: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at St-Didier-River, 16 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) | 6 | 8 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 21 | 16 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 56 | 46 | 52 | 71 | 83 | 77 | 77 | 71 | 84 | 91 | 93 | 56 |
February is the driest month (46 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 26 °C). 93 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 50 nights a year. The climate in Sorbiers →
Neighbors
Next to Sorbiers
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
La TalaudièreSaint-Jean-BonnefondsL'ÉtratSaint-Priest-en-JarezSaint-ChamondSaint-HéandSorbiers
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sorbiers | 0% | 14% | 1.8 |
| La Talaudière 7,133 · 1.8 km | 0% | 6.6% | 1.5 |
| Saint-Jean-Bonnefonds 6,563 · 4.4 km | 0% | 12% | 1.4 |
| L'Étrat 2,879 · 5.4 km | 0% | 19% | 1 |
| Saint-Priest-en-Jarez 6,471 · 5.6 km | 0% | 0.6% | 3.3 |
| Saint-Chamond 35,646 · 5.9 km | 33% | 26% | 2.1 |
| Saint-Héand 3,665 · 6.8 km | 0% | 14% | 1.3 |
Saint-Chamond has at least twice as much protected land. Saint-Chamond is 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 Sorbiers
Is Sorbiers in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Pilat Regional Nature Park, 5.4 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Sorbiers?
OpenStreetMap maps 22 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.8 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²).
How much of Sorbiers is woodland?
14% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Sorbiers near the sea?
No: the coast is 217 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Sorbiers?
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 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.