First pick
Parc Albert Tassart
Park or garden
0.7 ha0.4 km of path
Centralin the middle of Cahors
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: The original uploader was Accrochoc at French Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 3.042%woodland
Outdoors in Cahors · protected areas, woods and footpaths
42% of Cahors is woodland, more than in 8 in 10 French towns
No protected area reaches Cahors; the nearest, Causses du Quercy Regional Nature Park, is 3.9 km from the town center. Cahors has 35 km of waymarked hiking routes. 126 km of footpaths cross Cahors (1.9 km per km²). 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: Causses du Quercy Regional Nature Park, 3.9 km
Woodland
42%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
126 km
1.9 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
35 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
3
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc Albert Tassart
Throughout this page, the Lot 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 Cahors?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A wooded commune42% mapped woodland, more than in 86% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.Protected land nearbyCausses du Quercy Regional Nature Park is 3.9 km from the town center.
What sets Cahors apart: its woods, then protected land close by.
Against French towns
How Cahors 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
47out of 100
Woodland42%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
86out of 100
Footpaths1.9 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
56out of 100
Hiking routes0.5 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
64out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Cahors has the 7th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (19,425 to 20,690 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Villefontaine (9.1 km per km²) to Bressuire (0.6 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Villefontaine Isère | 9.1 | 21% | 1.7% | 241 km |
| 2 | Chaville Hauts-de-Seine | 8.3 | 46% | 0% | 148 km |
| 3 | Gentilly Val-de-Marne | 8 | 1.8% | 0% | 153 km |
| 4 | Le Mée-sur-Seine Seine-et-Marne | 7.9 | 34% | 0% | 190 km |
| 5 | Mont-Saint-Aignan Seine-Maritime | 7.3 | 12% | 0% | 50 km |
| 6 | La Celle-Saint-Cloud Yvelines | 6.6 | 29% | 0% | 142 km |
| 7 | Maurepas Yvelines | 5.8 | 29% | 0.1% | 137 km |
| 8 | Chevilly-Larue Val-de-Marne | 5.8 | 3.8% | 0% | 158 km |
| 9 | Fougères Ille-et-Vilaine | 4.8 | 1.8% | 0% | 33 km |
| 10 | Paris 2e Paris | 4.6 | 0% | 0% | 148 km |
| 11 | Joinville-le-Pont Val-de-Marne | 4.4 | 1.7% | 0% | 158 km |
| 12 | Chilly-Mazarin Essonne | 4.2 | 2.8% | 0% | 163 km |
| 13 | Albertville Savoie | 4.1 | 47% | 0% | 228 km |
| 14 | Bouguenais Loire-Atlantique | 4 | 18% | 8.4% | 33 km |
| 15 | Mougins Alpes-Maritimes | 4 | 28% | 0% | 5.1 km |
| 16 | La Chapelle-sur-Erdre Loire-Atlantique | 3.8 | 20% | 1.9% | 43 km |
| 17 | Bruz Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.8 | 14% | 0% | 55 km |
| 18 | Bruges Gironde | 3.7 | 9.3% | 23% | 14 km |
| 19 | Ronchin Nord | 3.7 | 1.8% | 0% | 66 km |
| 20 | Forbach Moselle | 3.5 | 32% | 0% | 359 km |
| 21 | Croix Nord | 3.4 | 4.6% | 0% | 61 km |
| 22 | Cournon-d'Auvergne Puy-de-Dôme | 3.3 | 6.6% | 6.3% | 251 km |
| 23 | Denain Nord | 3.2 | 5.9% | 0.1% | 103 km |
| 24 | Cugnaux Haute-Garonne | 3.1 | 6.8% | 0% | 151 km |
| 25 | Le Creusot Saône-et-Loire | 3 | 23% | 0% | 361 km |
| 26 | Saint-Lô Manche | 2.9 | 5% | 0% | 26 km |
| 27 | Royan Charente-Maritime | 2.8 | 8.7% | 12% | On it |
| 28 | Grande-Synthe Nord | 2.8 | 5.3% | 7.4% | On it |
| 29 | Sarreguemines Moselle | 2.6 | 32% | 0.9% | 374 km |
| 30 | Beaune Côte-d'Or | 2.6 | 16% | 25% | 389 km |
| 31 | Lisieux Calvados | 2.4 | 1.9% | 0% | 26 km |
| 32 | Lannion Côtes-d'Armor | 2.3 | 15% | 5.9% | On it |
| 33 | La Crau Var | 2.3 | 23% | 1.8% | 6.1 km |
| 34 | Vence Alpes-Maritimes | 2.2 | 28% | 64% | 8.3 km |
| 35 | Cahors Lot | 1.9 | 42% | 0% | 172 km |
| 36 | Bourg-lès-Valence Drôme | 1.8 | 1.8% | 0% | 166 km |
| 37 | Pertuis Vaucluse | 1.5 | 18% | 100% | 40 km |
| 38 | Sélestat Bas-Rhin | 1 | 40% | 56% | 462 km |
| 39 | Mitry-Mory Seine-et-Marne | 1 | 4.8% | 0% | 151 km |
| 40 | L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue Vaucluse | 0.8 | 4.8% | 7.3% | 54 km |
| 41 | Bressuire Deux-Sèvres | 0.6 | 2.4% | 0% | 77 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 Cahors
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc Albert Tassart leads, at 0.7 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc Philippe-Gaubert
Park or garden
0.3 ha0.2 km of path
1.1 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Jardin du Passeur
Park or garden
0.2 ha0.2 km of path
Centralin the middle of Cahors
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Causses du Quercy Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 3.9 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
Causses du Quercy Regional Nature Park
3.9 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.
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
126 km of footpaths and 35 km of hiking routes cross Cahors
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
126 km
1.9 km per km²
Hiking routes
35 km
waymarked: 0.5 km per km²
Woodland
42%
about 27.1 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
CahorsLot medianFrance median
Footpaths1.9
Hiking routes0.5
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
CahorsLot medianFrance median
Woodland42%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 56% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 86% 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 Cahors is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
10 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
De la Manche aux Pyrénées 18, Cahors - Villefranche-de-Rouergue14 km
Circuit du Cap de la Cévenne11 km
Circuit du Blay9.3 km
De la Manche aux Pyrénées 17, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac - Cahors8.2 km
Circuit du Mont Saint-Cyr6.4 km
Circuit des Arts5.7 km
Il suffit de passer les ponts - 7,4km5.2 km
Circuit de terre blanc4.7 km
Circuit du point de vue2.3 km
Circuit des trois églises0.4 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Cahors: May to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Anglars, 19 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) | 9.2 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.8 | 15.5 | 15.2 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.5 | 8.8 |
| High (°C) | 10 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 26 | 28 | 29 | 25 | 20 | 14 | 11 |
| Rain (mm) | 76 | 59 | 62 | 78 | 77 | 67 | 55 | 57 | 66 | 68 | 80 | 77 |
July is the driest month (55 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 29 °C). 80 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 47 nights a year. The climate in Cahors →
Gardens
A garden to visit in Cahors
Named gardens in the commune.
Parc TassartIn Cahors
DirectionsSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and Wikidata.
Neighbors
Next to Cahors
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
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 Cahors
Is Cahors in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Causses du Quercy Regional Nature Park, 3.9 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Cahors?
OpenStreetMap maps 126 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.9 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 35 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Cahors is woodland?
42% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Cahors near the sea?
No: the coast is 172 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Cahors?
May 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.