First pick
Les Vaucelles
Wood or forest
290 ha
3.8 km north-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Bastien.pierre · CC BY-SA 3.099%of the land protected
Outdoors in Crespin · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Crespin lies inside Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park
99% of Crespin’s land lies in protected areas. Mapped woodland covers 34% of Crespin. Crespin has 11 km of waymarked hiking routes. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
99%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
34%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
7.2 km
0.7 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
11 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: Les Vaucelles
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 place
What kind of outdoors place is Crespin?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park99% of the commune is in the regional nature park.On waymarked routes11 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.A wooded commune34% mapped woodland, more than in 81% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.
What sets Crespin apart: the regional nature park around it, then its hiking routes.
Against French towns
How Crespin 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 areas99%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
91out of 100
Woodland34%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
81out of 100
Footpaths0.7 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
22out of 100
Hiking routes1.1 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
86out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Crespin has the 13th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,494 to 4,570 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Gréasque (7.9 km per km²) to Camaret-sur-Aigues (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gréasque Bouches-du-Rhône | 7.9 | 53% | 0% | 19 km |
| 2 | Jacob-Bellecombette Savoie | 7.4 | 26% | 45% | 232 km |
| 3 | Villiers-sur-Orge Essonne | 4.7 | 7.5% | 0% | 166 km |
| 4 | La Frette-sur-Seine Val-d'Oise | 4.6 | 6.9% | 0% | 131 km |
| 5 | Leucate Aude | 3.4 | 2.1% | 79% | On it |
| 6 | Bretteville-sur-Odon Calvados | 3.2 | 4.3% | 0% | 17 km |
| 7 | Montigny-en-Ostrevent Nord | 2.8 | 13% | 0.4% | 92 km |
| 8 | Plourin-lès-Morlaix Finistère | 2 | 22% | 0.5% | 5.4 km |
| 9 | Milly-la-Forêt Essonne | 1.9 | 53% | 100% | 192 km |
| 10 | Notre-Dame-d'Oé Indre-et-Loire | 1.9 | 2.7% | 0% | 189 km |
| 11 | Saint-Marcel Eure | 1.8 | 24% | 0% | 88 km |
| 12 | Communay Rhône | 1.8 | 13% | 0% | 235 km |
| 13 | Noirmoutier-en-l'Île Vendée | 1.7 | 4% | 38% | On it |
| 14 | Maintenon Eure-et-Loir | 1.6 | 28% | 0.5% | 130 km |
| 15 | Plougonvelin Finistère | 1.4 | 4.3% | 0.9% | On it |
| 16 | Chaponnay Rhône | 1.4 | 17% | 0% | 240 km |
| 17 | Marchiennes Nord | 1.4 | 38% | 100% | 91 km |
| 18 | Banyuls-sur-Mer Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.3 | 6.4% | 78% | On it |
| 19 | Biache-Saint-Vaast Pas-de-Calais | 1.3 | 9.2% | 0% | 90 km |
| 20 | La Guerche-de-Bretagne Ille-et-Vilaine | 1.2 | 0.2% | 0% | 77 km |
| 21 | Jouques Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.2 | 61% | 92% | 40 km |
| 22 | Bonson Loire | 1.1 | 9.6% | 7.9% | 218 km |
| 23 | Bages Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.1 | 0.3% | 0% | 12 km |
| 24 | Saint-Aunès Hérault | 1 | 4.7% | 0% | 10 km |
| 25 | Saint-Pair-sur-Mer Manche | 0.9 | 2.5% | 4.5% | 0.9 km |
| 26 | Beaussais-sur-Mer Côtes-d'Armor | 0.9 | 12% | 100% | On it |
| 27 | Castelmaurou Haute-Garonne | 0.8 | 20% | 0% | 143 km |
| 28 | Lamotte-Beuvron Loir-et-Cher | 0.7 | 52% | 100% | 239 km |
| 29 | Crespin Nord | 0.7 | 34% | 99% | 105 km |
| 30 | Saint-Martin-de-May Calvados | 0.7 | 2.9% | 0% | 21 km |
| 31 | Sainte-Marie-aux-Chênes Moselle | 0.6 | 2.2% | 0% | 314 km |
| 32 | Villeneuve-lès-Béziers Hérault | 0.6 | 1.8% | 30% | 7.4 km |
| 33 | Montagnac Hérault | 0.6 | 11% | 14% | 17 km |
| 34 | Lunel-Viel Hérault | 0.6 | 4.6% | 0% | 13 km |
| 35 | Retiers Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.5 | 0.6% | 0% | 79 km |
| 36 | Le Thillay Val-d'Oise | 0.5 | 2.5% | 0% | 141 km |
| 37 | Gonfaron Var | 0.4 | 42% | 23% | 21 km |
| 38 | Freneuse Yvelines | 0.4 | 34% | 51% | 100 km |
| 39 | Hœrdt Bas-Rhin | 0.4 | 3% | 0% | 444 km |
| 40 | Vivonne Vienne | 0.4 | 21% | 0% | 108 km |
| 41 | Camaret-sur-Aigues Vaucluse | 0.3 | 2.4% | 0.8% | 79 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 Crespin
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Les Vaucelles leads, at 290 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Crespin
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
99% of the commune
Natura 2000 site
Vallée de la Scarpe et de l’Escaut
0.6% of the commune2.5 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area99%
Regional nature park99%
Natura 2000 site0.6%
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.
99% of Crespin’s land is protected, more than in 91% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Nord has 0%. 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
7 km of footpaths and 11 km of hiking routes cross Crespin
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
7.2 km
0.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
11 km
waymarked: 1.1 km per km²
Woodland
34%
about 3.4 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
CrespinNord medianFrance median
Footpaths0.7
Hiking routes1.1
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
CrespinNord medianFrance median
Woodland34%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 78% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 81% 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 Crespin is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
7 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 12212 km
GR 4122.1 km
Circuit Alexandre le Géant7.9 km
Via Septemtriones Templi7.6 km
Circuit des Chemins Pavés5.1 km
La Canarderie2.1 km
Via Tenera1.8 km
2 GR routes pass within 2 km of Crespin: GR 122 and GR 412.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Crespin: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Valenciennes, 17 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 Crespin →
Neighbors
Next to Crespin
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
QuiévrechainQuaroubleOnnaingFresnes-sur-EscautCondé-sur-l'EscautEscautpontCrespin
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crespin | 99% | 34% | 0.7 |
| Quiévrechain 5,949 · 2.2 km | 97% | 13% | 2.5 |
| Quarouble 3,145 · 4 km | 100% | 19% | 0.9 |
| Onnaing 8,479 · 5.5 km | 1.1% | 16% | 0.5 |
| Fresnes-sur-Escaut 7,354 · 6.8 km | 100% | 24% | 1.5 |
| Condé-sur-l'Escaut 9,253 · 7 km | 99% | 44% | 3.5 |
| Escautpont 4,202 · 7.5 km | 99% | 41% | 2.6 |
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 Crespin
Is Crespin in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Crespin lies in Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park (99% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Crespin?
OpenStreetMap maps 7 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.7 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 11 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Crespin is woodland?
34% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Crespin near the sea?
No: the coast is 105 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Crespin?
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 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.