Photo: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT · CC BY 4.0Bray-Dunes is on the coast
41% of Bray-Dunes’ land lies in protected areas. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 15 km in Bray-Dunes. 31 km of footpaths cross Bray-Dunes (3.6 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
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.
What kind of outdoors place is Bray-Dunes?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Bray-Dunes apart: the sea, then its hiking routes. It is shorter on woodland.
How Bray-Dunes 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.
Bray-Dunes has the 5th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,160 to 4,222 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Indre (4.7 km per km²) to Redessan (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indre Loire-Atlantique | 4.7 | 7.9% | 41% | 30 km |
| 2 | Le Pouliguen Loire-Atlantique | 4.4 | 1.6% | 5.1% | On it |
| 3 | Herserange Meurthe-et-Moselle | 3.9 | 47% | 0% | 276 km |
| 4 | Corenc Isère | 3.8 | 50% | 45% | 206 km |
| 5 | Bray-Dunes Nord | 3.6 | 0% | 41% | On it |
| 6 | Thumeries Nord | 3.3 | 37% | 12% | 77 km |
| 7 | Montarnaud Hérault | 3 | 47% | 17% | 22 km |
| 8 | Escautpont Nord | 2.6 | 41% | 99% | 100 km |
| 9 | Salouël Somme | 2.6 | 2% | 0% | 54 km |
| 10 | Le Neubourg Eure | 2.3 | 19% | 0% | 51 km |
| 11 | Saint-Pierre-d'Albigny Savoie | 2.2 | 50% | 100% | 225 km |
| 12 | Yvré-l'Évêque Sarthe | 2.2 | 26% | 0% | 138 km |
| 13 | Tourrettes-sur-Loup Alpes-Maritimes | 2.1 | 40% | 100% | 11 km |
| 14 | Marlenheim Bas-Rhin | 2 | 9.8% | 0% | 435 km |
| 15 | Carnac Morbihan | 1.7 | 25% | 2.5% | On it |
| 16 | Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier Ille-et-Vilaine | 1.7 | 36% | 2.7% | 41 km |
| 17 | Pont-du-Casse Lot-et-Garonne | 1.7 | 8.3% | 0% | 132 km |
| 18 | Pomponne Seine-et-Marne | 1.6 | 48% | 4% | 161 km |
| 19 | Valgelon-La Rochette Savoie | 1.6 | 31% | 0.6% | 216 km |
| 20 | Wolfisheim Bas-Rhin | 1.6 | 7.5% | 0% | 446 km |
| 21 | Saint-Donat-sur-l'Herbasse Drôme | 1.1 | 26% | 0% | 186 km |
| 22 | Bartenheim Haut-Rhin | 1.1 | 30% | 29% | 428 km |
| 23 | Grisolles Tarn-et-Garonne | 1 | 13% | 19% | 168 km |
| 24 | Hérin Nord | 0.9 | 1% | 99% | 103 km |
| 25 | Athis-Val de Rouvre Orne | 0.8 | 11% | 2.9% | 56 km |
| 26 | Noues de Sienne Calvados | 0.7 | 20% | 0% | 32 km |
| 27 | Gourdon Lot | 0.7 | 42% | 0% | 158 km |
| 28 | Brionne Eure | 0.6 | 38% | 14% | 38 km |
| 29 | Nailloux Haute-Garonne | 0.6 | 5.1% | 0% | 123 km |
| 30 | Le Châtelet-en-Brie Seine-et-Marne | 0.6 | 18% | 0% | 200 km |
| 31 | Anneyron Drôme | 0.6 | 14% | 0% | 201 km |
| 32 | Selles-sur-Cher Loir-et-Cher | 0.6 | 20% | 7.9% | 232 km |
| 33 | Porte des Pierres Dorées Rhône | 0.6 | 9.4% | 0% | 271 km |
| 34 | Saint-Florentin Yonne | 0.6 | 10% | 0% | 284 km |
| 35 | Breteuil Oise | 0.4 | 15% | 0% | 75 km |
| 36 | Jouarre Seine-et-Marne | 0.3 | 28% | 0% | 175 km |
| 37 | Sées Orne | 0.3 | 5.5% | 100% | 79 km |
| 38 | Guignen Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.3 | 11% | 1.2% | 61 km |
| 39 | Bollwiller Haut-Rhin | 0.3 | 26% | 0% | 453 km |
| 40 | Courpière Puy-de-Dôme | 0.2 | 36% | 100% | 248 km |
| 41 | Redessan Gard | 0.2 | 0% | 66% | 41 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
8 in 10 residents of Bray-Dunes 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).
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
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.
41% of Bray-Dunes lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Dunes de la plaine maritime flamande
Dune Marchand nature reserve
Bancs des Flandres
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.
41% of Bray-Dunes’ land is protected, more than in 85% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Nord has 0%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
31 km of footpaths and 15 km of hiking routes cross Bray-Dunes
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 more than in 81% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 99% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
4 named hiking routes within 2 km
3 GR routes pass within 2 km of Bray-Dunes: E2, GR 120 and GR 5A Wandelronde van Vlaanderen (Zuid).
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Bray-Dunes: May to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Dunkerque, 13 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) | 8.4 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.5 | 16.5 | 16.1 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 7.9 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 54 | 45 | 42 | 37 | 46 | 55 | 59 | 64 | 65 | 73 | 80 | 73 |
April is the driest month (37 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 22 °C). 80 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 17 nights a year. The climate in Bray-Dunes →
Next to Bray-Dunes
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bray-Dunes | 41% | 0% | 3.6 | On it |
| Ghyvelde 4,133 · 2.8 km | 6.9% | 0.2% | 1.3 | 3.7 km |
| Leffrinckoucke 4,078 · 5.9 km | 25% | 0.6% | 3.4 | On it |
| Téteghem-Coudekerque-Village 8,247 · 8.5 km | 0% | 9.1% | 2.8 | 4.1 km |
| Coudekerque-Branche 20,787 · 11 km | 0% | 14% | 5.1 | 2.2 km |
| Dunkerque 86,263 · 11 km | 1.5% | 1.8% | 4.8 | On it |
| Hondschoote 3,957 · 11 km | 0% | 0% | 1.6 | 12 km |
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 Bray-Dunes
Is Bray-Dunes in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 41% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Bray-Dunes?
OpenStreetMap maps 31 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 15 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Bray-Dunes is woodland?
0% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Bray-Dunes near the sea?
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 1 km from its center.
When is the best time for walking in Bray-Dunes?
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.