First pick
Parc du Caniveau
Park or garden
0.8 ha0.3 km of path
2.3 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Serge Ottaviani · CC BY 4.099%of the land protected
Outdoors in Fenain · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Fenain lies inside Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park
Protected areas cover 99% of Fenain’s land. Footpaths add up to 6 km across Fenain (1 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 10% of Fenain. 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
10%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
5.6 km
1 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 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: Parc du Caniveau
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 Fenain 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
Woodland10%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
40out of 100
Footpaths1 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
31out of 100
Hiking routes0 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
12out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Fenain has the 14th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (5,388 to 5,489 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Heillecourt (6.1 km per km²) to Noyant-Villages (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heillecourt Meurthe-et-Moselle | 6.1 | 1.5% | 0% | 369 km |
| 2 | Marsannay-la-Côte Côte-d'Or | 6 | 47% | 49% | 405 km |
| 3 | Marles-les-Mines Pas-de-Calais | 3.6 | 3.7% | 0% | 57 km |
| 4 | Crégy-lès-Meaux Seine-et-Marne | 3.5 | 10% | 0% | 159 km |
| 5 | Le Cendre Puy-de-Dôme | 3.4 | 3.3% | 1.8% | 249 km |
| 6 | Saint-Genis-les-Ollières Rhône | 2.5 | 14% | 0% | 250 km |
| 7 | Roques Haute-Garonne | 2.4 | 4.3% | 40% | 148 km |
| 8 | Peyrolles-en-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.4 | 63% | 69% | 38 km |
| 9 | La Roque-d'Anthéron Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.3 | 36% | 51% | 39 km |
| 10 | Le Boulou Pyrénées-Orientales | 2 | 19% | 7.4% | 18 km |
| 11 | Plouhinec Morbihan | 2 | 24% | 32% | On it |
| 12 | Guînes Pas-de-Calais | 1.8 | 34% | 100% | 10 km |
| 13 | Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours Seine-et-Marne | 1.8 | 45% | 29% | 214 km |
| 14 | Wervicq-Sud Nord | 1.8 | 3% | 0% | 48 km |
| 15 | Ollainville Essonne | 1.7 | 37% | 0% | 165 km |
| 16 | Rosheim Bas-Rhin | 1.7 | 57% | 0% | 443 km |
| 17 | Rousset Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.7 | 7.1% | 7.7% | 27 km |
| 18 | Arnage Sarthe | 1.6 | 11% | 0% | 138 km |
| 19 | Flers-en-Escrebieux Nord | 1.5 | 12% | 1% | 85 km |
| 20 | Bordères-sur-l'Échez Hautes-Pyrénées | 1.4 | 22% | 0% | 128 km |
| 21 | Foulayronnes Lot-et-Garonne | 1.4 | 9.9% | 0% | 130 km |
| 22 | Vic-le-Comte Puy-de-Dôme | 1.2 | 19% | 100% | 241 km |
| 23 | Lacroix-Saint-Ouen Oise | 1.2 | 73% | 76% | 121 km |
| 24 | Coulogne Pas-de-Calais | 1.2 | 1.1% | 0% | 4.7 km |
| 25 | Grans Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.2 | 13% | 43% | 22 km |
| 26 | Aiffres Deux-Sèvres | 1 | 3.4% | 14% | 54 km |
| 27 | Le Lion-d'Angers Maine-et-Loire | 1 | 5.4% | 0.8% | 115 km |
| 28 | Fenain Nord | 1 | 10% | 99% | 97 km |
| 29 | Drusenheim Bas-Rhin | 0.8 | 29% | 17% | 449 km |
| 30 | Drap Alpes-Maritimes | 0.8 | 33% | 0% | 4.8 km |
| 31 | Saint-Memmie Marne | 0.7 | 4.7% | 0% | 239 km |
| 32 | La Ferrière Vendée | 0.7 | 9.6% | 0% | 38 km |
| 33 | Boulay-Moselle Moselle | 0.7 | 11% | 0% | 339 km |
| 34 | Mouguerre Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 0.5 | 40% | 7.9% | 11 km |
| 35 | Reichshoffen Bas-Rhin | 0.5 | 27% | 100% | 420 km |
| 36 | Étoile-sur-Rhône Drôme | 0.5 | 8.7% | 1.6% | 154 km |
| 37 | Ploumagoar Côtes-d'Armor | 0.5 | 20% | 0% | 19 km |
| 38 | Châtillon-sur-Seine Côte-d'Or | 0.4 | 12% | 100% | 334 km |
| 39 | Aubigny-sur-Nère Cher | 0.3 | 25% | 24% | 265 km |
| 40 | Nueil-les-Aubiers Deux-Sèvres | 0.2 | 4.2% | 0% | 83 km |
| 41 | Noyant-Villages Maine-et-Loire | 0.1 | 23% | 13% | 164 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 Fenain
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.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Fenain
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
15% of the commune2.1 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Forêts de Raismes / Saint Amand / Wallers et Marchiennes et plaine alluviale de la Scarpe
12% of the commune2.1 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area99%
Regional nature park99%
Natura 2000 site15%
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 Fenain’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
6 km of footpaths cross Fenain
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
5.6 km
1 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 km
waymarked: 0 km per km²
Woodland
10%
about 0.6 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
FenainNord medianFrance median
Footpaths1
Hiking routes0
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
FenainNord medianFrance median
Woodland10%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 69% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 60% 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 Fenain is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
5 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 1211.5 km
Circuit des Anciennes Carrières5.9 km
La Chapelle du Marais4.6 km
Le Marais des Onze Villes4.3 km
Boucle 5 - Au cœur de l'héritage religieux et minier de l'Ostrevent1.5 km
GR 121 passes within 2 km of Fenain.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Fenain: 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 Fenain →
Neighbors
Next to Fenain
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
SomainHornaingAbsconEscaudainAnicheMarchiennesFenain
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
Marchiennes is 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 Fenain
Is Fenain in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Fenain lies in Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park (99% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Fenain?
OpenStreetMap maps 6 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²).
How much of Fenain is woodland?
10% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Fenain near the sea?
No: the coast is 97 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Fenain?
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.