First pick
Parc Utting
Park or garden
19 ha1.5 km of path
20 minto walk all 1.5 km of path
0.7 km westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: William M. Connolley at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0100%of the land protected
Outdoors in Auray · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Auray lies inside Golfe du Morbihan Regional Nature Park
100% of Auray’s land lies in protected areas. Footpaths add up to 36 km across Auray (5 km per km²). Auray has 6 km of waymarked hiking routes. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
100%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
8.3%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
36 km
5 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
6 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
4
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc Utting
The sea
On it
the commune touches the coast, 0.9 km from its center
Throughout this page, the Morbihan 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 Auray?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Golfe du Morbihan Regional Nature Park100% of the commune is in the regional nature park.A place of footpaths5 km per km² of mapped footpath, against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.On the coastThe commune touches the sea; the coast is 0.9 km from its center.On waymarked routes6 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.
What sets Auray apart: the regional nature park around it, then its footpaths.
Against French towns
How Auray 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 areas100%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
93out of 100
Woodland8.3%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
35out of 100
Footpaths5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
90out of 100
Hiking routes0.8 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
78out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Auray has the 8th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (13,834 to 14,568 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Lieusaint (8.8 km per km²) to Castelsarrasin (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lieusaint Seine-et-Marne | 8.8 | 6.3% | 0% | 178 km |
| 2 | Saint-Maurice Val-de-Marne | 8.8 | 9.4% | 0% | 157 km |
| 3 | Valenton Val-de-Marne | 8.7 | 6.6% | 0% | 164 km |
| 4 | Vaires-sur-Marne Seine-et-Marne | 7.7 | 21% | 11% | 161 km |
| 5 | Billère Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 6.7 | 4.2% | 9.2% | 93 km |
| 6 | Chenôve Côte-d'Or | 6.5 | 10% | 17% | 403 km |
| 7 | Audincourt Doubs | 5.3 | 36% | 0% | 414 km |
| 8 | Auray Morbihan | 5 | 8.3% | 100% | On it |
| 9 | Montesson Yvelines | 4.7 | 2.3% | 0% | 136 km |
| 10 | Saint-Genis-Pouilly Ain | 4.5 | 17% | 0.3% | 298 km |
| 11 | Lys-lez-Lannoy Nord | 4.2 | 3.9% | 0% | 64 km |
| 12 | Juvignac Hérault | 4.2 | 4.2% | 0% | 14 km |
| 13 | Ostwald Bas-Rhin | 4 | 10% | 0% | 452 km |
| 14 | Andrésy Yvelines | 3.8 | 23% | 0% | 126 km |
| 15 | Canteleu Seine-Maritime | 3.7 | 64% | 100% | 49 km |
| 16 | Douarnenez Finistère | 3.3 | 16% | 3.8% | On it |
| 17 | Bois-Guillaume Seine-Maritime | 3 | 3.8% | 0% | 50 km |
| 18 | Montataire Oise | 2.9 | 11% | 0.1% | 116 km |
| 19 | Ollioules Var | 2.9 | 23% | 14% | On it |
| 20 | Plérin Côtes-d'Armor | 2.9 | 14% | 1.8% | On it |
| 21 | Rixheim Haut-Rhin | 2.8 | 41% | 23% | 441 km |
| 22 | L'Étang-Salé Réunion | 2.6 | 52% | 39% | On it |
| 23 | Persan Val-d'Oise | 2.5 | 0.3% | 0.1% | 120 km |
| 24 | Roncq Nord | 2.3 | 2.5% | 0% | 53 km |
| 25 | Bollène Vaucluse | 2.2 | 28% | 9.5% | 93 km |
| 26 | Sainte-Maxime Var | 2.1 | 65% | 19% | On it |
| 27 | Morangis Essonne | 2.1 | 0.8% | 0% | 163 km |
| 28 | Crépy-en-Valois Oise | 2 | 16% | 0% | 137 km |
| 29 | Pont-à-Mousson Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.8 | 31% | 0.4% | 341 km |
| 30 | Flers Orne | 1.6 | 2.5% | 0% | 59 km |
| 31 | Hautmont Nord | 1.6 | 11% | 0% | 130 km |
| 32 | Saint-Brevin-les-Pins Loire-Atlantique | 1.6 | 7.3% | 25% | On it |
| 33 | Saint-Paul-lès-Dax Landes | 1.6 | 62% | 5.3% | 29 km |
| 34 | Saint-Omer Pas-de-Calais | 1.6 | 2.8% | 100% | 28 km |
| 35 | Mions Rhône | 1.5 | 1.3% | 0% | 244 km |
| 36 | Belleville-en-Beaujolais Rhône | 1.1 | 5.4% | 7.1% | 288 km |
| 37 | Fontenay-le-Comte Vendée | 1.1 | 2% | 100% | 31 km |
| 38 | Méru Oise | 0.8 | 16% | 0% | 106 km |
| 39 | Saint-Martin-de-Crau Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.4 | 3.6% | 91% | 21 km |
| 40 | Thouars Deux-Sèvres | 0.3 | 12% | 0.4% | 102 km |
| 41 | Castelsarrasin Tarn-et-Garonne | 0.3 | 5.6% | 6.8% | 173 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 Auray
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc Utting leads, at 19 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc Jean Royère
Park or garden
0.9 ha0.4 km of path
0.8 km south-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Parc Treulen
Park or garden
0.5 ha0.3 km of path
0.8 km north-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Auray
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Golfe du Morbihan Regional Nature Park
100% of the commune
Natura 2000 site
Golfe du Morbihan, côte ouest de Rhuys
1.5% of the commune1.4 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area100%
Regional nature park100%
Natura 2000 site1.5%
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.
100% of Auray’s land is protected, more than in 93% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Morbihan has 4.4%. 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
36 km of footpaths and 6 km of hiking routes cross Auray
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
36 km
5 km per km²
Hiking routes
6 km
waymarked: 0.8 km per km²
Woodland
8.3%
about 0.6 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
AurayMorbihan medianFrance median
Footpaths5
Hiking routes0.8
036 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
AurayMorbihan medianFrance median
Woodland8.3%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 90% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 65% 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 Auray is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
5 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Chemin des Douaniers, Le Magouëro - Baden14 km
À deux pas de chez nous3.3 km
Circuit de la Chapelle de Béquerel1.6 km
La rivière du Bono1.6 km
Sentier de Keruzerh-Brigitte0.8 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Auray: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Auray, 1.8 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) | 10 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 21 | 18 | 13 | 11 |
| Rain (mm) | 110 | 83 | 68 | 70 | 64 | 54 | 51 | 55 | 72 | 107 | 115 | 122 |
July is the driest month (51 mm) and the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 122 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 22 nights a year. The climate in Auray →
Neighbors
Next to Auray
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
PluneretBrechSainte-Anne-d'AurayCrachLe BonoPlougoumelenAuray
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auray | 100% | 8.3% | 5 | On it |
| Pluneret 6,262 · 3.3 km | 100% | 19% | 1.8 | On it |
| Brech 7,052 · 3.7 km | 0% | 18% | 1.1 | On it |
| Sainte-Anne-d'Auray 2,889 · 4.4 km | 100% | 12% | 2.9 | 2.5 km |
| Crach 3,423 · 4.6 km | 100% | 22% | 0.9 | On it |
| Le Bono 2,608 · 4.7 km | 100% | 27% | 4 | On it |
| Plougoumelen 2,664 · 6.1 km | 100% | 22% | 1 | On it |
Crach, Le Bono and Plougoumelen 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 Auray
Is Auray in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Auray lies in Golfe du Morbihan Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Auray?
OpenStreetMap maps 36 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 6 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Auray is woodland?
8.3% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Auray near the sea?
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 0.9 km from its center.
When is the best time for walking in Auray?
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.