First pick
Jardin Public
Park or garden
3.4 ha1 km of path
15 minto walk all 1 km of path
Centralin the middle of Arques
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: U.S. Army Air Forces Spot Number D8520, Sortie PP16-30PRS, Exposure RSV-2034 · Public domain76%of the land protected
Outdoors in Arques · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Arques lies inside Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park
Protected areas cover 76% of Arques’ land. Mapped woodland covers 37% of Arques. Footpaths add up to 74 km across Arques (3.3 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
76%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
37%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
74 km
3.3 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.7 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: Jardin Public
The sea
31 km
from the town center to the coast
Throughout this page, the Pas-de-Calais 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 Arques?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park76% of the commune is in the regional nature park.A wooded commune37% mapped woodland, more than in 83% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.A place of footpaths3.3 km per km² of mapped footpath, against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.
What sets Arques apart: the regional nature park around it, then its woods.
Against French towns
How Arques 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 areas76%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
90out of 100
Woodland37%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
83out of 100
Footpaths3.3 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
77out of 100
Hiking routes0.4 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
57out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Arques has the 14th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (9,291 to 9,570 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Bures-sur-Yvette (8.5 km per km²) to Tonneins (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bures-sur-Yvette Essonne | 8.5 | 26% | 0.2% | 155 km |
| 2 | Ville-la-Grand Haute-Savoie | 6 | 14% | 0% | 287 km |
| 3 | La Ravoire Savoie | 5.3 | 14% | 0% | 231 km |
| 4 | Poisy Haute-Savoie | 5 | 33% | 0% | 263 km |
| 5 | Jarville-la-Malgrange Meurthe-et-Moselle | 4.6 | 2.7% | 0% | 369 km |
| 6 | Darnétal Seine-Maritime | 4.2 | 37% | 0% | 53 km |
| 7 | Magny-les-Hameaux Yvelines | 4.1 | 29% | 100% | 149 km |
| 8 | Carqueiranne Var | 3.9 | 28% | 0.1% | On it |
| 9 | Vert-Saint-Denis Seine-et-Marne | 3.9 | 23% | 0% | 187 km |
| 10 | Redon Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.8 | 10% | 32% | 28 km |
| 11 | Saint-Jean-le-Blanc Loiret | 3.6 | 4.8% | 11% | 207 km |
| 12 | Liffré Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.4 | 61% | 20% | 45 km |
| 13 | Séné Morbihan | 3.3 | 10% | 90% | On it |
| 14 | Arques Pas-de-Calais | 3.3 | 37% | 76% | 31 km |
| 15 | Rombas Moselle | 3.3 | 53% | 0% | 314 km |
| 16 | Le Passage Lot-et-Garonne | 3.2 | 7.8% | 9% | 131 km |
| 17 | Mont-Saint-Martin Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.9 | 18% | 0% | 274 km |
| 18 | Quincy-sous-Sénart Essonne | 2.8 | 57% | 0% | 174 km |
| 19 | Landivisiau Finistère | 2.8 | 12% | 0.8% | 14 km |
| 20 | Leers Nord | 2.6 | 1.6% | 0% | 64 km |
| 21 | Molsheim Bas-Rhin | 2.5 | 8.8% | 0% | 441 km |
| 22 | Sallaumines Pas-de-Calais | 2.4 | 8.1% | 0% | 77 km |
| 23 | Savenay Loire-Atlantique | 2.3 | 14% | 7.7% | 20 km |
| 24 | Clermont-l'Hérault Hérault | 2 | 22% | 46% | 32 km |
| 25 | Guichen Ille-et-Vilaine | 1.8 | 11% | 0% | 60 km |
| 26 | Lescar Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 1.6 | 6.6% | 20% | 89 km |
| 27 | Chaponost Rhône | 1.5 | 12% | 0% | 245 km |
| 28 | Belley Ain | 1.4 | 19% | 0% | 261 km |
| 29 | Paray-le-Monial Saône-et-Loire | 1.3 | 20% | 0% | 321 km |
| 30 | Nort-sur-Erdre Loire-Atlantique | 1.2 | 9% | 6.6% | 53 km |
| 31 | Dombasle-sur-Meurthe Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1 | 17% | 0% | 380 km |
| 32 | Luçon Vendée | 0.9 | 1.1% | 100% | 16 km |
| 33 | Nogent-le-Rotrou Eure-et-Loir | 0.8 | 7.9% | 100% | 127 km |
| 34 | Elne Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.8 | 0.2% | 3% | On it |
| 35 | Livron-sur-Drôme Drôme | 0.8 | 11% | 4.3% | 147 km |
| 36 | Albert Somme | 0.8 | 1.1% | 0% | 72 km |
| 37 | L'Isle-Jourdain Gers | 0.7 | 7% | 0% | 173 km |
| 38 | Vallet Loire-Atlantique | 0.6 | 7.8% | 0% | 56 km |
| 39 | Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu Loire-Atlantique | 0.4 | 4.5% | 44% | 26 km |
| 40 | Petit-Caux Seine-Maritime | 0.3 | 4.6% | 1.1% | On it |
| 41 | Tonneins Lot-et-Garonne | 0.2 | 2.8% | 3.5% | 99 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 Arques
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Jardin Public leads, at 3.4 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
La Coulée Verte
Park or garden
2.2 ha0.8 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.8 km of path
1.5 km westfrom 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 Arques
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park
76% of the commune
Nature reserve
Long Chêne nature reserve
4.7 km from the town center
Natura 2000 site
Prairies, marais tourbeux, forêts et bois de la cuvette audomaroise et de ses versants
5.9% of the commune1.9 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area76%
Regional nature park76%
Nature reserve0.4%
Natura 2000 site5.9%
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.
76% of Arques’ land is protected, more than in 90% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Pas-de-Calais 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
74 km of footpaths and 10 km of hiking routes cross Arques
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
74 km
3.3 km per km²
Hiking routes
9.7 km
waymarked: 0.4 km per km²
Woodland
37%
about 8.3 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
ArquesPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Footpaths3.3
Hiking routes0.4
024 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
ArquesPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Woodland37%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 77% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 83% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 99% of Arques’ residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 1281.2 km
Tour de l'Audomarois29 km
GR 128 passes within 2 km of Arques.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Arques: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Watten, 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) | 8.4 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.5 | 16.5 | 16.1 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.9 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 24 | 24 | 21 | 16 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 70 | 58 | 50 | 44 | 56 | 59 | 67 | 73 | 72 | 84 | 97 | 93 |
April is the driest month (44 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 97 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 41 nights a year. The climate in Arques →
Neighbors
Next to Arques
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
BlendecquesLonguenesseSaint-OmerSaint-Martin-lez-TatinghemWizernesWattenArques
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arques | 76% | 37% | 3.3 | 31 km |
| Blendecques 4,859 · 2.7 km | 84% | 18% | 1.1 | 32 km |
| Longuenesse 10,548 · 2.9 km | 100% | 8.8% | 3.7 | 29 km |
| Saint-Omer 14,382 · 3.4 km | 100% | 2.8% | 1.6 | 28 km |
| Saint-Martin-lez-Tatinghem 5,843 · 5.4 km | 100% | 0.3% | 0.7 | 27 km |
| Wizernes 3,321 · 5.5 km | 100% | 6.8% | 0.7 | 32 km |
| Watten 2,564 · 12 km | 100% | 24% | 1.4 | 18 km |
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 Arques
Is Arques in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Arques lies in Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park (76% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Arques?
OpenStreetMap maps 74 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.3 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 10 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Arques is woodland?
37% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Arques near the sea?
No: the coast is 31 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Arques?
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 4, 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.