First pick
Parc de la Croisette
Park or garden · 10 m outside the commune
5 ha1.6 km of path
20 minto walk all 1.6 km of path
1.9 km north-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Floflo62 · CC BY-SA 4.01.5%woodland
Outdoors in Wattignies · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Wattignies has more footpaths per km² than 8 in 10 French towns
Footpaths add up to 22 km across Wattignies (3.5 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 1.5% of Wattignies. No protected area reaches Wattignies; the nearest, Le Héron nature reserve, is 10 km from the town center. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Le Héron nature reserve, 10 km
Woodland
1.5%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
22 km
3.5 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
4
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc de la Croisette
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 Wattignies?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A place of footpaths3.5 km per km² of mapped footpath, against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.Little mapped woodland1.5% of the land, against 13% for the median compared town.
What sets Wattignies apart: its footpaths. It is shorter on woodland.
Against French towns
How Wattignies 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 areas0%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
22out of 100
Woodland1.5%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
9out of 100
Footpaths3.5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
80out 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
Wattignies has the 14th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (15,078 to 15,974 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Paris 1er (17.1 km per km²) to Montrevault-sur-Èvre (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris 1er Paris | 17.1 | 0% | 0% | 148 km |
| 2 | Montévrain Seine-et-Marne | 7.3 | 11% | 0% | 165 km |
| 3 | Ramonville-Saint-Agne Haute-Garonne | 5.6 | 9.9% | 0% | 141 km |
| 4 | Fontainebleau Seine-et-Marne | 5.3 | 94% | 94% | 205 km |
| 5 | Castanet-Tolosan Haute-Garonne | 5.1 | 12% | 0% | 138 km |
| 6 | Longwy Meurthe-et-Moselle | 5.1 | 15% | 0% | 275 km |
| 7 | Avrillé Maine-et-Loire | 4.9 | 9.1% | 0% | 117 km |
| 8 | Le Vésinet Yvelines | 4.9 | 0.1% | 0% | 137 km |
| 9 | Francheville Rhône | 4.6 | 29% | 0% | 248 km |
| 10 | Le Bourget Seine-Saint-Denis | 4.5 | 2.2% | 0% | 145 km |
| 11 | Montmagny Val-d'Oise | 4.4 | 25% | 0% | 139 km |
| 12 | Hennebont Morbihan | 4 | 25% | 0% | On it |
| 13 | Saint-Pierre-des-Corps Indre-et-Loire | 3.8 | 6.9% | 9.3% | 186 km |
| 14 | Wattignies Nord | 3.5 | 1.5% | 0% | 66 km |
| 15 | Bouc-Bel-Air Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.5 | 29% | 0% | 12 km |
| 16 | Marseille 16e Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.4 | 8.2% | 0.2% | On it |
| 17 | Ambérieu-en-Bugey Ain | 3.3 | 49% | 0% | 281 km |
| 18 | Vesoul Haute-Saône | 3.1 | 3.3% | 3.6% | 434 km |
| 19 | Vendôme Loir-et-Cher | 3.1 | 32% | 0% | 187 km |
| 20 | Lucé Eure-et-Loir | 3 | 2.6% | 0% | 137 km |
| 21 | Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry Seine-et-Marne | 2.4 | 13% | 100% | 187 km |
| 22 | Roquebrune-sur-Argens Var | 2.4 | 40% | 25% | On it |
| 23 | Morlaix Finistère | 2.3 | 18% | 3.8% | On it |
| 24 | Guipavas Finistère | 2.2 | 11% | 0.4% | On it |
| 25 | Port-de-Bouc Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.1 | 14% | 28% | On it |
| 26 | Senlis Oise | 2.1 | 48% | 100% | 126 km |
| 27 | Montivilliers Seine-Maritime | 2 | 6.9% | 0% | 6.8 km |
| 28 | Château-Thierry Aisne | 1.9 | 18% | 0% | 176 km |
| 29 | Saint-Amand-les-Eaux Nord | 1.9 | 43% | 100% | 93 km |
| 30 | Rive-de-Gier Loire | 1.7 | 13% | 0.1% | 222 km |
| 31 | Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert Loire | 1.7 | 23% | 13% | 216 km |
| 32 | Wittenheim Haut-Rhin | 1.6 | 32% | 0% | 447 km |
| 33 | Toul Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.4 | 20% | 0.5% | 348 km |
| 34 | Issoire Puy-de-Dôme | 1.4 | 8% | 3.4% | 229 km |
| 35 | Hayange Moselle | 1.3 | 35% | 0% | 305 km |
| 36 | Biscarrosse Landes | 1.1 | 65% | 20% | On it |
| 37 | Elbeuf Seine-Maritime | 1 | 75% | 0% | 49 km |
| 38 | Tarascon Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.9 | 16% | 13% | 41 km |
| 39 | Beaucaire Gard | 0.7 | 4.5% | 8.8% | 40 km |
| 40 | Fos-sur-Mer Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.5 | 0.6% | 15% | On it |
| 41 | Montrevault-sur-Èvre Maine-et-Loire | 0.3 | 7.3% | 0% | 75 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 Wattignies
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc de la Croisette leads, at 5 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc des Aubépines
Park or garden
5 ha1.3 km of path
15 minto walk all 1.3 km of path
1.7 km north-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Parc de la mairie
Park or garden · 90 m outside the commune
0.7 ha
1.5 km south-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Jardin de Craie
Park or garden · 260 m outside the commune
0.3 ha0.1 km of path
1.9 km northfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Le Héron nature reserve is the nearest protected area, 10 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Nature reserve
Le Héron nature reserve
10 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0%
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.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
Footpaths and woods in Wattignies
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
22 km
3.5 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 km
waymarked: 0 km per km²
Woodland
1.5%
about 0.1 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
WattigniesNord medianFrance median
Footpaths3.5
Hiking routes0
02.55 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
WattigniesNord medianFrance median
Woodland1.5%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 80% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 91% 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 Wattignies is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Wattignies: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Lille-Lesquin, 4.4 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 | 10.0 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.5 | 16.4 | 16.0 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.9 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 24 | 20 | 15 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 58 | 51 | 52 | 45 | 62 | 64 | 68 | 71 | 57 | 64 | 75 | 73 |
April is the driest month (45 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 75 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 37 nights a year. The climate in Wattignies →
Neighbors
Next to Wattignies
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
TemplemarsFaches-ThumesnilEmmerinLoosRonchinHouplin-AncoisneWattignies
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wattignies | 0% | 1.5% | 3.5 |
| Templemars 3,669 · 1.8 km | 0% | 0.6% | 2.1 |
| Faches-Thumesnil 18,619 · 2.4 km | 0% | 0.2% | 4.4 |
| Emmerin 3,026 · 2.9 km | 0% | 6.3% | 2.8 |
| Loos 22,567 · 3.2 km | 0% | 4.6% | 5 |
| Ronchin 19,787 · 3.7 km | 0% | 1.8% | 3.7 |
| Houplin-Ancoisne 3,326 · 3.9 km | 0% | 4.4% | 3 |
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 Wattignies
Is Wattignies in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Le Héron nature reserve, 10 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Wattignies?
OpenStreetMap maps 22 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²).
How much of Wattignies is woodland?
1.5% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Wattignies near the sea?
No: the coast is 66 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Wattignies?
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.