First pick
Forêt d'Halatte
Wood or forest
7,101 ha202.1 km of path
44 h 55 minto walk all 202.1 km of path
7.9 km south-westfrom the center
Chemin de BrenouilleRoute des Blancs SablonsRoute de la Valroy+5 paths
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: P.poschadel · CC BY-SA 2.0 fr100%of the land protected
Outdoors in Pontpoint · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Pontpoint lies inside Oise-Pays de France Regional Nature Park
100% of Pontpoint’s land lies in protected areas. Mapped woodland covers 41% of Pontpoint. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 4 km in Pontpoint. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
100%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
41%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
29 km
1.5 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.3 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
2
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Forêt d'Halatte
Throughout this page, the Oise 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 Pontpoint?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Oise-Pays de France Regional Nature Park100% of the commune is in the regional nature park.A wooded commune41% mapped woodland, more than in 86% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.
What sets Pontpoint apart: the regional nature park around it, then its woods.
Against French towns
How Pontpoint 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 areas100%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
94out of 100
Woodland41%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
86out of 100
Footpaths1.5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
46out of 100
Hiking routes0.2 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
40out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Pontpoint has the 15th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (3,236 to 3,313 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Exincourt (3.3 km per km²) to Albias (0 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exincourt Doubs | 3.3 | 4% | 0% | 416 km |
| 2 | Amfreville-la-Mi-Voie Seine-Maritime | 3.2 | 24% | 3.5% | 56 km |
| 3 | Lavérune Hérault | 3.1 | 6.9% | 0% | 11 km |
| 4 | Volx Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 3.1 | 37% | 100% | 71 km |
| 5 | Les Noës-près-Troyes Aube | 3.1 | 0% | 0% | 270 km |
| 6 | Luc-sur-Mer Calvados | 3 | 1.1% | 0% | On it |
| 7 | Lespinasse Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 1.6% | 0% | 156 km |
| 8 | La Membrolle-sur-Choisille Indre-et-Loire | 2.2 | 19% | 0% | 184 km |
| 9 | Carantec Finistère | 2.2 | 3.6% | 14% | On it |
| 10 | Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon Loire-Atlantique | 2.2 | 18% | 31% | 29 km |
| 11 | Dieulefit Drôme | 2 | 66% | 0% | 120 km |
| 12 | Bonne Haute-Savoie | 1.7 | 34% | 3.3% | 281 km |
| 13 | Mireval Hérault | 1.6 | 0.1% | 18% | 4.3 km |
| 14 | La Roche-Blanche Puy-de-Dôme | 1.5 | 12% | 7.8% | 249 km |
| 15 | Pontpoint Oise | 1.5 | 41% | 100% | 120 km |
| 16 | Bernis Gard | 1.4 | 26% | 2.6% | 28 km |
| 17 | Rostrenen Côtes-d'Armor | 1.4 | 18% | 0% | 45 km |
| 18 | La Chapelle-Longueville Eure | 1.3 | 31% | 0% | 86 km |
| 19 | Montmorot Jura | 1.3 | 17% | 0% | 357 km |
| 20 | Magnac-sur-Touvre Charente | 1 | 22% | 3.1% | 82 km |
| 21 | Carling Moselle | 0.9 | 11% | 0% | 351 km |
| 22 | Montanay Rhône | 0.8 | 7.1% | 0% | 265 km |
| 23 | Offranville Seine-Maritime | 0.8 | 4.5% | 0% | 5.3 km |
| 24 | Moussy-le-Neuf Seine-et-Marne | 0.8 | 26% | 0.2% | 141 km |
| 25 | Frévent Pas-de-Calais | 0.7 | 13% | 0% | 44 km |
| 26 | Podensac Gironde | 0.5 | 14% | 4.6% | 44 km |
| 27 | Gouville-sur-Mer Manche | 0.5 | 2.6% | 0.4% | 2.9 km |
| 28 | Rouans Loire-Atlantique | 0.5 | 5.5% | 30% | 18 km |
| 29 | Morhange Moselle | 0.5 | 7% | 0% | 367 km |
| 30 | Sainte-Florine Haute-Loire | 0.5 | 8.3% | 0% | 213 km |
| 31 | Bavay Nord | 0.4 | 4% | 100% | 121 km |
| 32 | Dordives Loiret | 0.4 | 30% | 0% | 228 km |
| 33 | Azay-sur-Cher Indre-et-Loire | 0.3 | 15% | 0% | 189 km |
| 34 | Sarrola-Carcopino Corse-du-Sud | 0.3 | 6.7% | 0% | 6.1 km |
| 35 | Vonnas Ain | 0.3 | 9.9% | 0% | 304 km |
| 36 | Aix-Villemaur-Pâlis Aube | 0.3 | 26% | 0.9% | 263 km |
| 37 | Malissard Drôme | 0.3 | 0.3% | 0% | 161 km |
| 38 | Airvault Deux-Sèvres | 0.2 | 13% | 18% | 95 km |
| 39 | Puiseaux Loiret | 0.2 | 2.6% | 1% | 207 km |
| 40 | Ambès Gironde | 0.1 | 5.4% | 58% | 4.6 km |
| 41 | Albias Tarn-et-Garonne | 0 | 4.8% | 1.4% | 173 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 Pontpoint
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Forêt d'Halatte leads, at 7,101 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Forêt Communale de Pontpoint
Wood or forest
151 ha3.3 km of path
45 minto walk all 3.3 km of path
0.9 km south-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Pontpoint
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Oise-Pays de France Regional Nature Park
100% of the commune
Natura 2000 site
Forêts picardes : massif des trois forêts et bois du Roi
27% of the commune1 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Massifs forestiers d’Halatte, de Chantilly et d’Ermenonville
27% of the commune1 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Coteaux de la vallée de l’Automne
1.2% of the commune1.7 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area100%
Regional nature park100%
Natura 2000 site28%
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 Pontpoint’s land is protected, more than in 94% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Oise has 0.1%. 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
29 km of footpaths cross Pontpoint
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
29 km
1.5 km per km²
Hiking routes
4.3 km
waymarked: 0.2 km per km²
Woodland
41%
about 7.8 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
PontpointOise medianFrance median
Footpaths1.5
Hiking routes0.2
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
PontpointOise medianFrance median
Woodland41%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 54% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 86% 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 Pontpoint is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
3 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 12B8.3 km
De Roberval à Rhuis5.9 km
Via Sancti Martini - Chemin d'Utrecht5.2 km
GR 12B passes within 2 km of Pontpoint.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Pontpoint: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Creil, 11 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) | 8.6 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.3 | 16.2 | 15.8 | 14.4 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.0 | 8.2 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 16 | 11 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 56 | 47 | 48 | 45 | 60 | 56 | 56 | 58 | 45 | 61 | 59 | 71 |
September is the driest month (45 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 71 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 51 nights a year. The climate in Pontpoint →
Neighbors
Next to Pontpoint
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Pont-Sainte-MaxenceVerberieVerneuil-en-HalatteBéthisy-Saint-PierreVillers-Saint-PaulLacroix-Saint-OuenPontpoint
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pontpoint | 100% | 41% | 1.5 |
| Pont-Sainte-Maxence 12,361 · 3 km | 99% | 47% | 1.8 |
| Verberie 3,898 · 6.2 km | 8.1% | 20% | 1 |
| Verneuil-en-Halatte 4,775 · 9.4 km | 58% | 49% | 1.3 |
| Béthisy-Saint-Pierre 3,111 · 11 km | 21% | 37% | 2.1 |
| Villers-Saint-Paul 6,480 · 12 km | 0% | 16% | 3.2 |
| Lacroix-Saint-Ouen 5,415 · 12 km | 76% | 73% | 1.2 |
Lacroix-Saint-Ouen 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 Pontpoint
Is Pontpoint in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Pontpoint lies in Oise-Pays de France Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Pontpoint?
OpenStreetMap maps 29 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 4 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Pontpoint is woodland?
41% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Pontpoint near the sea?
No: the coast is 120 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Pontpoint?
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 October 30, 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.