Photo: Michielverbeek · CC BY-SA 3.0Hergnies lies inside Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park
Protected areas cover 100% of Hergnies’ land. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 16 km in Hergnies. Mapped woodland covers 8.5% of Hergnies. 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 Hergnies?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Hergnies apart: the regional nature park around it, then its hiking routes.
How Hergnies 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.
Hergnies has the 16th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,444 to 4,512 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Cap-d'Ail (10.8 km per km²) to Marans (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cap-d'Ail Alpes-Maritimes | 10.8 | 7.8% | 0.2% | On it |
| 2 | Jacob-Bellecombette Savoie | 7.4 | 26% | 45% | 232 km |
| 3 | Saint-Nicolas Pas-de-Calais | 4.8 | 2.8% | 0% | 79 km |
| 4 | Royat Puy-de-Dôme | 4.2 | 63% | 0.2% | 257 km |
| 5 | Nozay Essonne | 3.2 | 5.7% | 0% | 162 km |
| 6 | Maurecourt Yvelines | 3.2 | 15% | 0% | 125 km |
| 7 | Bretteville-sur-Odon Calvados | 3.2 | 4.3% | 0% | 17 km |
| 8 | La Chaussée-Saint-Victor Loir-et-Cher | 3 | 11% | 8.1% | 215 km |
| 9 | Montrabé Haute-Garonne | 3 | 6.6% | 0% | 142 km |
| 10 | Thourotte Oise | 2.8 | 8% | 0.8% | 116 km |
| 11 | Montigny-en-Ostrevent Nord | 2.8 | 13% | 0.4% | 92 km |
| 12 | Écrouves Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.6 | 23% | 100% | 346 km |
| 13 | Saint-Laurent-du-Pont Isère | 2.3 | 67% | 100% | 224 km |
| 14 | Villeneuve-de-la-Raho Pyrénées-Orientales | 2.2 | 0.2% | 0% | 9.8 km |
| 15 | Vinon-sur-Verdon Var | 2.1 | 34% | 100% | 57 km |
| 16 | Saint-Marcel Eure | 1.8 | 24% | 0% | 88 km |
| 17 | Rousson Gard | 1.8 | 28% | 0% | 70 km |
| 18 | Noirmoutier-en-l'Île Vendée | 1.7 | 4% | 38% | On it |
| 19 | Maintenon Eure-et-Loir | 1.6 | 28% | 0.5% | 130 km |
| 20 | Guise Aisne | 1.5 | 4.9% | 0% | 143 km |
| 21 | Marchiennes Nord | 1.4 | 38% | 100% | 91 km |
| 22 | Banyuls-sur-Mer Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.3 | 6.4% | 78% | On it |
| 23 | Plobsheim Bas-Rhin | 1.1 | 10% | 31% | 459 km |
| 24 | Saint-Pair-sur-Mer Manche | 0.9 | 2.5% | 4.5% | 0.9 km |
| 25 | Beaussais-sur-Mer Côtes-d'Armor | 0.9 | 12% | 100% | On it |
| 26 | Hergnies Nord | 0.9 | 8.5% | 100% | 94 km |
| 27 | Guignes Seine-et-Marne | 0.9 | 36% | 0% | 189 km |
| 28 | Hesdin-la-Forêt Pas-de-Calais | 0.9 | 51% | 0% | 28 km |
| 29 | Chancelade Dordogne | 0.7 | 48% | 0% | 100 km |
| 30 | Lamotte-Beuvron Loir-et-Cher | 0.7 | 52% | 100% | 239 km |
| 31 | Villeneuve-lès-Béziers Hérault | 0.6 | 1.8% | 30% | 7.4 km |
| 32 | Mesnil-Roc'h Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.6 | 36% | 100% | 8.2 km |
| 33 | Lunel-Viel Hérault | 0.6 | 4.6% | 0% | 13 km |
| 34 | La Réole Gironde | 0.5 | 7.2% | 6.5% | 64 km |
| 35 | Pineuilh Gironde | 0.5 | 8.5% | 2.2% | 67 km |
| 36 | Jarnac Charente | 0.5 | 6.2% | 23% | 53 km |
| 37 | Gonfaron Var | 0.4 | 42% | 23% | 21 km |
| 38 | Freneuse Yvelines | 0.4 | 34% | 51% | 100 km |
| 39 | Charmes Vosges | 0.4 | 60% | 8% | 391 km |
| 40 | Torigny-les-Villes Manche | 0.3 | 5.4% | 0% | 38 km |
| 41 | Marans Charente-Maritime | 0.2 | 0.3% | 100% | 11 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Protected land in and around Hergnies
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park
Vallée de la Scarpe et de l’Escaut
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.
100% of Hergnies’ land is protected, more than in 92% 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.
9 km of footpaths and 16 km of hiking routes cross Hergnies
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 72% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 64% 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 Hergnies is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
6 named hiking routes within 2 km
2 GR routes pass within 2 km of Hergnies: GR 121 and GR 122.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Hergnies: 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 Hergnies →
Next to Hergnies
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hergnies | 100% | 8.5% | 0.9 |
| Vieux-Condé 10,617 · 2.9 km | 100% | 7.4% | 1.7 |
| Condé-sur-l'Escaut 9,253 · 4.8 km | 99% | 44% | 3.5 |
| Fresnes-sur-Escaut 7,354 · 5.5 km | 100% | 24% | 1.5 |
| Escautpont 4,202 · 6.7 km | 99% | 41% | 2.6 |
| Saint-Amand-les-Eaux 15,974 · 8 km | 100% | 43% | 1.9 |
| Bruay-sur-l'Escaut 11,644 · 8.8 km | 98% | 14% | 2.1 |
Condé-sur-l'Escaut, Fresnes-sur-Escaut and Escautpont 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 Hergnies
Is Hergnies in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Hergnies lies in Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Hergnies?
OpenStreetMap maps 9 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.9 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 16 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Hergnies is woodland?
8.5% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Hergnies near the sea?
No: the coast is 94 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Hergnies?
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.