Photo: Chau7 · CC BY-SA 3.032% of Decize’s land is protected for nature
Footpaths add up to 29 km across Decize (0.6 km per km²). Waymarked hiking routes add up to 1 km in Decize. 15% of Decize is mapped woodland. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Nièvre median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
What kind of outdoors place is Decize?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Decize apart: its protected countryside. It is shorter on footpaths.
How Decize 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.
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Decize has the 12th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,884 to 4,981 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Grand-Fort-Philippe (4.5 km per km²) to Charny Orée de Puisaye (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grand-Fort-Philippe Nord | 4.5 | 0.1% | 0% | On it |
| 2 | Bogny-sur-Meuse Ardennes | 4.3 | 79% | 100% | 200 km |
| 3 | Beaucourt Territoire de Belfort | 3.7 | 33% | 0% | 414 km |
| 4 | Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche Yvelines | 3.6 | 38% | 0% | 136 km |
| 5 | Le Versoud Isère | 3.2 | 18% | 0% | 202 km |
| 6 | Pechbonnieu Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 15% | 0% | 150 km |
| 7 | Gratentour Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 1.8% | 0% | 153 km |
| 8 | Saint-Mathieu-de-Tréviers Hérault | 2.6 | 48% | 66% | 26 km |
| 9 | La Grand-Croix Loire | 2.5 | 15% | 0% | 219 km |
| 10 | Ballainvilliers Essonne | 2.4 | 2.3% | 0% | 164 km |
| 11 | La Mure Isère | 2.2 | 10% | 0% | 176 km |
| 12 | Montchanin Saône-et-Loire | 2.1 | 20% | 0% | 355 km |
| 13 | Sainte-Marie-la-Mer Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.9 | 1.4% | 1.3% | On it |
| 14 | Bousbecque Nord | 1.5 | 1.4% | 0% | 49 km |
| 15 | Laigneville Oise | 1.5 | 29% | 0% | 112 km |
| 16 | Bitche Moselle | 1.3 | 75% | 100% | 398 km |
| 17 | Crécy-la-Chapelle Seine-et-Marne | 1.1 | 21% | 0% | 172 km |
| 18 | Cluny Saône-et-Loire | 1.1 | 42% | 100% | 322 km |
| 19 | La Souterraine Creuse | 1.1 | 18% | 0% | 193 km |
| 20 | Claira Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.1 | 0% | 0% | 7 km |
| 21 | Bruyères-sur-Oise Val-d'Oise | 1 | 3.1% | 0.2% | 122 km |
| 22 | Le Fenouiller Vendée | 1 | 4.1% | 9.9% | 3.5 km |
| 23 | Verneuil-sur-Vienne Haute-Vienne | 1 | 23% | 0% | 154 km |
| 24 | Mourmelon-le-Grand Marne | 1 | 29% | 0.1% | 226 km |
| 25 | Créon Gironde | 0.9 | 24% | 0% | 32 km |
| 26 | Briare Loiret | 0.8 | 27% | 7.9% | 266 km |
| 27 | Souppes-sur-Loing Seine-et-Marne | 0.7 | 19% | 1.4% | 223 km |
| 28 | Sainte-Eulalie Gironde | 0.6 | 7.3% | 0% | 14 km |
| 29 | Heyrieux Isère | 0.6 | 6.6% | 0% | 242 km |
| 30 | Decize Nièvre | 0.6 | 15% | 32% | 355 km |
| 31 | Bégard Côtes-d'Armor | 0.5 | 11% | 0% | 13 km |
| 32 | Nivillac Morbihan | 0.5 | 9.4% | 3.7% | 9.4 km |
| 33 | Witry-lès-Reims Marne | 0.4 | 3.6% | 0% | 201 km |
| 34 | Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule Allier | 0.4 | 6.2% | 9.3% | 311 km |
| 35 | Lisle-sur-Tarn Tarn | 0.4 | 30% | 0% | 136 km |
| 36 | Verdun-sur-Garonne Tarn-et-Garonne | 0.3 | 12% | 8.5% | 174 km |
| 37 | Saint-Père-en-Retz Loire-Atlantique | 0.3 | 5.6% | 5.7% | 8.1 km |
| 38 | Val d'Erdre-Auxence Maine-et-Loire | 0.3 | 11% | 0% | 97 km |
| 39 | Castelnau-de-Médoc Gironde | 0.2 | 82% | 100% | 10 km |
| 40 | Saint-Laurent-Médoc Gironde | 0.1 | 61% | 100% | 7.6 km |
| 41 | Charny Orée de Puisaye Yonne | 0.1 | 22% | 0% | 266 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Protected land in and around Decize
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Val de Loire nivernais
Loire Bourguignonne nature reserve
Val de Loire nivernais
Share of the commune’s land
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.
32% of Decize’s land is protected, more than in 83% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Nièvre has 11%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
29 km of footpaths cross Decize
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.
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
That is less than in 82% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 54% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 96% of Decize’s 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).
The best walking months in Decize: April and June to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Yzeure, 28 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) | 8.9 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 15.0 | 15.8 | 15.5 | 14.2 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.3 | 8.5 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 9 | 13 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 27 | 22 | 17 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 60 | 50 | 52 | 65 | 81 | 71 | 68 | 64 | 68 | 71 | 83 | 65 |
February is the driest month (50 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 27 °C). 83 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 60 nights a year. The climate in Decize →
Next to Decize
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decize | 32% | 15% | 0.6 |
| La Machine 3,192 · 7.6 km | 58% | 65% | 1.5 |
| Imphy 3,182 · 19 km | 46% | 32% | 0.6 |
| Avermes 4,074 · 28 km | 13% | 4.2% | 1.2 |
La Machine and Imphy are more wooded.
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 Decize
Is Decize in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 32% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Decize?
OpenStreetMap maps 29 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 1 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Decize is woodland?
15% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Decize near the sea?
No: the coast is 355 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Decize?
April and June 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.