First pick
Parc du Caniveau
Park or garden
0.8 ha0.3 km of path
1.1 km northfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Rz98 · CC BY-SA 4.06.4%woodland
Outdoors in Abscon · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Parks, woods and footpaths in Abscon
No protected area reaches Abscon; the nearest, Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park, is 0.9 km from the town center. Mapped woodland covers 6.4% of Abscon. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 4 km in Abscon. 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: Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park, 0.9 km
Woodland
6.4%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
12 km
1.6 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
4 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Green space nearby
83%
of residents within 800 m of a park or wood
Compared town: 100%
Throughout this page, the Nord 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 Abscon 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
48out of 100
Woodland6.4%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
28out of 100
Footpaths1.6 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
49out of 100
Hiking routes0.6 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
65out of 100
Green space nearby83%Share of residents within 800 m of a mapped park or wood
4out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Abscon has the 14th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,075 to 4,141 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Longeville-lès-Metz (7.3 km per km²) to Benet (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Longeville-lès-Metz Moselle | 7.3 | 9.3% | 0% | 327 km |
| 2 | Chanteloup-en-Brie Seine-et-Marne | 6.5 | 24% | 0% | 166 km |
| 3 | Montferrier-sur-Lez Hérault | 5.3 | 33% | 8.3% | 16 km |
| 4 | Mareil-Marly Yvelines | 3.8 | 24% | 0% | 136 km |
| 5 | Bouxières-aux-Dames Meurthe-et-Moselle | 3.5 | 30% | 0% | 359 km |
| 6 | Leffrinckoucke Nord | 3.4 | 0.6% | 25% | On it |
| 7 | Turckheim Haut-Rhin | 2.7 | 56% | 7.9% | 469 km |
| 8 | Neufchâtel-Hardelot Pas-de-Calais | 2.5 | 27% | 100% | On it |
| 9 | Aramon Gard | 2.4 | 2.4% | 15% | 51 km |
| 10 | Aulnat Puy-de-Dôme | 2.1 | 0.1% | 0% | 258 km |
| 11 | Monéteau Yonne | 1.9 | 37% | 0% | 293 km |
| 12 | Bouchain Nord | 1.8 | 18% | 0% | 105 km |
| 13 | Le Houlme Seine-Maritime | 1.7 | 37% | 0% | 44 km |
| 14 | Abscon Nord | 1.6 | 6.4% | 0% | 100 km |
| 15 | Baccarat Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.6 | 39% | 17% | 412 km |
| 16 | Brie Charente | 1.5 | 35% | 19% | 86 km |
| 17 | Veigy-Foncenex Haute-Savoie | 1.5 | 38% | 0.3% | 293 km |
| 18 | Loctudy Finistère | 1.4 | 1.4% | 0.3% | On it |
| 19 | Val d'Oingt Rhône | 1.3 | 20% | 0% | 266 km |
| 20 | Ghyvelde Nord | 1.3 | 0.2% | 6.9% | 3.7 km |
| 21 | Pont-de-l'Arche Eure | 1.2 | 72% | 1.4% | 59 km |
| 22 | Nissan-lez-Enserune Hérault | 1.1 | 4.6% | 38% | 12 km |
| 23 | Survilliers Val-d'Oise | 1.1 | 23% | 71% | 135 km |
| 24 | Chaingy Loiret | 1 | 21% | 2.3% | 202 km |
| 25 | La Destrousse Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.9 | 11% | 6.2% | 19 km |
| 26 | Condé-sur-Vire Manche | 0.9 | 3.4% | 0% | 33 km |
| 27 | Domfront en Poiraie Orne | 0.9 | 13% | 100% | 52 km |
| 28 | Caissargues Gard | 0.9 | 10% | 1.7% | 34 km |
| 29 | Arsac Gironde | 0.9 | 59% | 100% | 6.4 km |
| 30 | Neuilly-en-Thelle Oise | 0.8 | 7.9% | 0% | 114 km |
| 31 | Plélan-le-Grand Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.7 | 12% | 0.2% | 55 km |
| 32 | Saint-Lubin-des-Joncherets Eure-et-Loir | 0.7 | 19% | 0% | 97 km |
| 33 | Eauze Gers | 0.6 | 24% | 9.8% | 117 km |
| 34 | Pusignan Rhône | 0.6 | 2.9% | 0% | 256 km |
| 35 | Pézilla-la-Rivière Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.5 | 1.8% | 0% | 22 km |
| 36 | Allassac Corrèze | 0.4 | 21% | 2.2% | 164 km |
| 37 | Cuxac-d'Aude Aude | 0.4 | 4.6% | 14% | 17 km |
| 38 | Les Mées Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 0.4 | 49% | 17% | 91 km |
| 39 | Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine Indre-et-Loire | 0.3 | 9.9% | 0% | 161 km |
| 40 | Saint-Joachim Loire-Atlantique | 0.2 | 0.1% | 100% | 8.8 km |
| 41 | Benet Vendée | 0.2 | 0.7% | 100% | 41 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 Abscon
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc du Caniveau leads, at 0.8 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Close to home
8 in 10 residents of Abscon live within 800 m of a park or wood
Each square is 1 resident in 100: in green, those within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or woodland edge (INSEE’s 200 m population grid against OpenStreetMap).
83% within 800 m17% further
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
AbsconNord medianFrance median
Within 800 m83%
0%50%100%
About 700 residents live further away. The distance is a straight line to the edge of a mapped park or wood, not a walk to a gate, and a wood can be private.
Protected areas
Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 0.9 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
Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park
0.9 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
12 km of footpaths cross Abscon
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
12 km
1.6 km per km²
Hiking routes
4 km
waymarked: 0.6 km per km²
Woodland
6.4%
about 0.5 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
AbsconNord medianFrance median
Footpaths1.6
Hiking routes0.6
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
AbsconNord medianFrance median
Woodland6.4%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 51% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 72% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Circuit des Anciennes Carrières10 km
Boucle 5 - Au cœur de l'héritage religieux et minier de l'Ostrevent1.4 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Abscon: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Valenciennes, 12 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) | 8.5 | 10.0 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.4 | 16.4 | 16.0 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.9 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 8 | 11 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 20 | 16 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 54 | 47 | 51 | 42 | 58 | 63 | 66 | 68 | 52 | 60 | 64 | 69 |
April is the driest month (42 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 69 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 46 nights a year. The climate in Abscon →
Neighbors
Next to Abscon
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
AnicheEscaudainSomainFenainRœulxLourchesAbscon
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
Fenain has at least twice as much protected land.
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 Abscon
Is Abscon in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park, 0.9 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Abscon?
OpenStreetMap maps 12 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 4 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Abscon is woodland?
6.4% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Abscon near the sea?
No: the coast is 100 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Abscon?
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.