Photo: Camster · CC BY-SA 3.0Parks, woods and footpaths in Solesmes
Footpaths add up to 6 km across Solesmes (0.3 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 0.7% of Solesmes. Solesmes has 15 km of waymarked hiking routes. 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 Solesmes?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Solesmes apart: protected land close by. It is shorter on footpaths.
How Solesmes 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.
Solesmes has the 3rd fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,113 to 4,170 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Chanteloup-en-Brie (6.5 km per km²) to Vieillevigne (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chanteloup-en-Brie Seine-et-Marne | 6.5 | 24% | 0% | 166 km |
| 2 | Montferrier-sur-Lez Hérault | 5.3 | 33% | 8.3% | 16 km |
| 3 | Indre Loire-Atlantique | 4.7 | 7.9% | 41% | 30 km |
| 4 | Herserange Meurthe-et-Moselle | 3.9 | 47% | 0% | 276 km |
| 5 | Mareil-Marly Yvelines | 3.8 | 24% | 0% | 136 km |
| 6 | Thumeries Nord | 3.3 | 37% | 12% | 77 km |
| 7 | Le Plessis-Pâté Essonne | 3.2 | 4.8% | 0% | 170 km |
| 8 | Fouras Charente-Maritime | 2.8 | 2.8% | 43% | On it |
| 9 | Turckheim Haut-Rhin | 2.7 | 56% | 7.9% | 469 km |
| 10 | Neufchâtel-Hardelot Pas-de-Calais | 2.5 | 27% | 100% | On it |
| 11 | Aulnat Puy-de-Dôme | 2.1 | 0.1% | 0% | 258 km |
| 12 | Tourrettes-sur-Loup Alpes-Maritimes | 2.1 | 40% | 100% | 11 km |
| 13 | Aigrefeuille-sur-Maine Loire-Atlantique | 2 | 5.8% | 0% | 44 km |
| 14 | Monéteau Yonne | 1.9 | 37% | 0% | 293 km |
| 15 | Bouchain Nord | 1.8 | 18% | 0% | 105 km |
| 16 | Le Houlme Seine-Maritime | 1.7 | 37% | 0% | 44 km |
| 17 | Brie Charente | 1.5 | 35% | 19% | 86 km |
| 18 | Veigy-Foncenex Haute-Savoie | 1.5 | 38% | 0.3% | 293 km |
| 19 | Saint-Romain-le-Puy Loire | 1.4 | 16% | 17% | 222 km |
| 20 | Val d'Oingt Rhône | 1.3 | 20% | 0% | 266 km |
| 21 | Ghyvelde Nord | 1.3 | 0.2% | 6.9% | 3.7 km |
| 22 | Pont-de-l'Arche Eure | 1.2 | 72% | 1.4% | 59 km |
| 23 | Gondecourt Nord | 1.2 | 4.8% | 0% | 68 km |
| 24 | Sainte-Menehould Marne | 1.2 | 70% | 35% | 263 km |
| 25 | Nissan-lez-Enserune Hérault | 1.1 | 4.6% | 38% | 12 km |
| 26 | Chaingy Loiret | 1 | 21% | 2.3% | 202 km |
| 27 | La Destrousse Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.9 | 11% | 6.2% | 19 km |
| 28 | Condé-sur-Vire Manche | 0.9 | 3.4% | 0% | 33 km |
| 29 | Domfront en Poiraie Orne | 0.9 | 13% | 100% | 52 km |
| 30 | Arsac Gironde | 0.9 | 59% | 100% | 6.4 km |
| 31 | Hérin Nord | 0.9 | 1% | 99% | 103 km |
| 32 | Neuilly-en-Thelle Oise | 0.8 | 7.9% | 0% | 114 km |
| 33 | Saint-Lubin-des-Joncherets Eure-et-Loir | 0.7 | 19% | 0% | 97 km |
| 34 | Anneyron Drôme | 0.6 | 14% | 0% | 201 km |
| 35 | Pusignan Rhône | 0.6 | 2.9% | 0% | 256 km |
| 36 | Saint-Florentin Yonne | 0.6 | 10% | 0% | 284 km |
| 37 | Pézilla-la-Rivière Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.5 | 1.8% | 0% | 22 km |
| 38 | Sées Orne | 0.3 | 5.5% | 100% | 79 km |
| 39 | Solesmes Nord | 0.3 | 0.7% | 0% | 121 km |
| 40 | Courpière Puy-de-Dôme | 0.2 | 36% | 100% | 248 km |
| 41 | Vieillevigne Loire-Atlantique | 0.2 | 4% | 0% | 42 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
8 in 10 residents of Solesmes 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 1,000 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.
Avesnois Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 3.9 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Avesnois Regional Nature Park
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.
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.
6 km of footpaths and 15 km of hiking routes cross Solesmes
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 95% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 95% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
5 named hiking routes within 2 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Solesmes: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Valenciennes, 16 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 | 8.1 |
| 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 Solesmes →
Next to Solesmes
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solesmes | 0% | 0.7% | 0.3 |
| Avesnes-les-Aubert 3,562 · 8.4 km | 0% | 0.8% | 0.6 |
| Caudry 13,833 · 9.2 km | 0% | 1.8% | 2.8 |
| Le Cateau-Cambrésis 6,764 · 9.5 km | 0% | 1.4% | 0.6 |
| Haspres 2,626 · 10 km | 0% | 1.8% | 0.2 |
| Le Quesnoy 4,878 · 12 km | 100% | 2.1% | 1.4 |
| Iwuy 3,403 · 14 km | 0% | 4.4% | 0.2 |
Le Quesnoy has at least twice as much protected land.
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 Solesmes
Is Solesmes in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Avesnois Regional Nature Park, 3.9 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Solesmes?
OpenStreetMap maps 6 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.3 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 15 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Solesmes is woodland?
0.7% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Solesmes near the sea?
No: the coast is 121 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Solesmes?
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.