First pick
Forêt de Ploërmel
Wood or forest
140 ha4.6 km of path
1 hto walk all 4.6 km of path
3.8 km south-eastfrom the center
Voie Verte Mauron-Questembert
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Roland45 · CC BY-SA 4.015%woodland
Outdoors in Ploërmel · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Ploërmel is within 800 m of a park or wood
No protected area reaches Ploërmel; the nearest, Forêt de Paimpont (Natura 2000), is 8.2 km from the town center. Footpaths add up to 67 km across Ploërmel (1.1 km per km²). Ploërmel has 5 km of waymarked hiking routes. 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: Forêt de Paimpont, 8.2 km
Woodland
15%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
67 km
1.1 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.7 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: Forêt de Ploërmel
The sea
39 km
from the town center to the coast
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.
Against French towns
How Ploërmel 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
Woodland15%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
53out of 100
Footpaths1.1 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
36out of 100
Hiking routes0.1 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
29out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Ploërmel has the 9th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (10,002 to 10,335 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Maxéville (5.5 km per km²) to Saint-Loubès (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maxéville Meurthe-et-Moselle | 5.5 | 24% | 0% | 363 km |
| 2 | Mondeville Calvados | 5.2 | 5.4% | 0% | 13 km |
| 3 | Serris Seine-et-Marne | 5.1 | 2.1% | 0% | 168 km |
| 4 | Villerupt Meurthe-et-Moselle | 4.2 | 30% | 0% | 288 km |
| 5 | Courrières Pas-de-Calais | 4.1 | 11% | 0% | 76 km |
| 6 | Villebon-sur-Yvette Essonne | 3.8 | 23% | 0% | 159 km |
| 7 | Oignies Pas-de-Calais | 3.7 | 12% | 0% | 77 km |
| 8 | Cabriès Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.7 | 28% | 1.6% | 11 km |
| 9 | Grigny-sur-Rhône Rhône | 3.5 | 16% | 0% | 234 km |
| 10 | Feyzin Rhône | 3.4 | 12% | 0% | 242 km |
| 11 | Soyaux Charente | 3.3 | 35% | 9% | 78 km |
| 12 | Auchel Pas-de-Calais | 3.1 | 8.6% | 0% | 55 km |
| 13 | Marly Moselle | 3 | 4.4% | 0% | 332 km |
| 14 | Sainte-Savine Aube | 2.5 | 0.6% | 0% | 271 km |
| 15 | Neuville-en-Ferrain Nord | 2.4 | 5.6% | 0% | 54 km |
| 16 | Beaumont-sur-Oise Val-d'Oise | 2.4 | 26% | 35% | 121 km |
| 17 | Pierrelaye Val-d'Oise | 2.4 | 20% | 0% | 126 km |
| 18 | Buxerolles Vienne | 2.3 | 10% | 0% | 119 km |
| 19 | Pfastatt Haut-Rhin | 2.2 | 22% | 0.1% | 443 km |
| 20 | Fillière Haute-Savoie | 2.1 | 49% | 20% | 266 km |
| 21 | Parthenay Deux-Sèvres | 2 | 3.8% | 0.1% | 78 km |
| 22 | Avranches Manche | 1.9 | 1.5% | 0% | 2.5 km |
| 23 | La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Seine-et-Marne | 1.9 | 30% | 0% | 172 km |
| 24 | Pont-Audemer Eure | 1.8 | 20% | 65% | 15 km |
| 25 | Jeumont Nord | 1.8 | 25% | 0.1% | 133 km |
| 26 | Ingré Loiret | 1.8 | 11% | 0% | 200 km |
| 27 | Le Muy Var | 1.7 | 35% | 46% | 16 km |
| 28 | Saint-Pierre-du-Mont Landes | 1.5 | 58% | 3.4% | 69 km |
| 29 | Le Beausset Var | 1.5 | 18% | 69% | 7.1 km |
| 30 | Lambesc Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.3 | 32% | 65% | 33 km |
| 31 | Apt Vaucluse | 1.2 | 29% | 100% | 58 km |
| 32 | Mazamet Tarn | 1.2 | 77% | 0.1% | 74 km |
| 33 | Ploërmel Morbihan | 1.1 | 15% | 0% | 39 km |
| 34 | La Farlède Var | 1.1 | 8.7% | 15% | 7.4 km |
| 35 | Couzeix Haute-Vienne | 1.1 | 21% | 0% | 163 km |
| 36 | Douchy-les-Mines Nord | 1 | 11% | 0% | 106 km |
| 37 | Borgo Haute-Corse | 0.8 | 11% | 28% | On it |
| 38 | Gerzat Puy-de-Dôme | 0.8 | 0.5% | 0% | 261 km |
| 39 | Lillers Pas-de-Calais | 0.5 | 7.8% | 0% | 53 km |
| 40 | Carentan-les-Marais Manche | 0.3 | 0.2% | 100% | On it |
| 41 | Saint-Loubès Gironde | 0.2 | 4% | 28% | 16 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 Ploërmel
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Forêt de Ploërmel leads, at 140 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Forêt de Paimpont is the nearest protected area, 8.2 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Forêt de Paimpont
8.2 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
67 km of footpaths cross Ploërmel
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
67 km
1.1 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.7 km
waymarked: 0.1 km per km²
Woodland
15%
about 8.7 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
PloërmelMorbihan medianFrance median
Footpaths1.1
Hiking routes0.1
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
PloërmelMorbihan medianFrance median
Woodland15%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 64% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 53% 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 Ploërmel is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Ploërmel: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Ploermel, 2.7 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 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.1 | 16.0 | 15.6 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.2 | 8.4 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 22 | 17 | 12 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 84 | 63 | 53 | 58 | 58 | 53 | 40 | 47 | 57 | 81 | 85 | 89 |
July is the driest month (40 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 89 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 33 nights a year. The climate in Ploërmel →
Neighbors
Next to Ploërmel
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Val d'OustJosselinMalestroitSérentMauronGuerPloërmel
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ploërmel | 0% | 15% | 1.1 | 39 km |
| Val d'Oust 2,807 · 7.3 km | 0% | 23% | 1.5 | 32 km |
| Josselin 2,584 · 12 km | 0% | 15% | 3.7 | 36 km |
| Malestroit 2,558 · 13 km | 0% | 17% | 3 | 30 km |
| Sérent 3,429 · 14 km | 0% | 25% | 0.3 | 25 km |
| Mauron 3,163 · 19 km | 0% | 11% | 0.2 | 51 km |
| Guer 6,208 · 20 km | 0% | 20% | 0.7 | 50 km |
Val d'Oust and Sérent 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 Ploërmel
Is Ploërmel in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Forêt de Paimpont, 8.2 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Ploërmel?
OpenStreetMap maps 67 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.1 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 5 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Ploërmel is woodland?
15% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Ploërmel near the sea?
No: the coast is 39 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Ploërmel?
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.