First pick
Bois de Saint-Pierre
Wood or forest
60 ha6.5 km of path
1 h 25 minto walk all 6.5 km of path
2.3 km north-westfrom the center
Allée du Parc
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Felouch Kotek · CC08.6%woodland
Outdoors in Auchel · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Auchel is within 800 m of a park or wood
Footpaths add up to 19 km across Auchel (3.1 km per km²). No protected area reaches Auchel; the nearest, Marais de Cambrin, Annequin, Cuinchy et Festubert nature reserve, is 17 km from the town center. Mapped woodland covers 8.6% of Auchel. 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: Marais de Cambrin, Annequin, Cuinchy et Festubert nature reserve, 17 km
Woodland
8.6%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
19 km
3.1 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
0.7 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: Bois de Saint-Pierre
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.
Against French towns
How Auchel 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
Woodland8.6%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
36out of 100
Footpaths3.1 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
76out of 100
Hiking routes0.1 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
31out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Auchel has the 10th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (9,892 to 10,219 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Maxéville (5.5 km per km²) to Saint-Loubès (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maxéville Meurthe-et-Moselle | 5.5 | 24% | 0% | 363 km |
| 2 | Saint-Max Meurthe-et-Moselle | 5.1 | 4.9% | 0.3% | 366 km |
| 3 | Villerupt Meurthe-et-Moselle | 4.2 | 30% | 0% | 288 km |
| 4 | Saint-Grégoire Ille-et-Vilaine | 4.2 | 5% | 0% | 44 km |
| 5 | Courrières Pas-de-Calais | 4.1 | 11% | 0% | 76 km |
| 6 | Méry-sur-Oise Val-d'Oise | 3.6 | 35% | 0% | 124 km |
| 7 | Grigny-sur-Rhône Rhône | 3.5 | 16% | 0% | 234 km |
| 8 | Soyaux Charente | 3.3 | 35% | 9% | 78 km |
| 9 | Voreppe Isère | 3.3 | 42% | 35% | 213 km |
| 10 | Auchel Pas-de-Calais | 3.1 | 8.6% | 0% | 55 km |
| 11 | Neuville-en-Ferrain Nord | 2.4 | 5.6% | 0% | 54 km |
| 12 | Pierrelaye Val-d'Oise | 2.4 | 20% | 0% | 126 km |
| 13 | Foix Ariège | 2.2 | 28% | 21% | 117 km |
| 14 | Fillière Haute-Savoie | 2.1 | 49% | 20% | 266 km |
| 15 | Parthenay Deux-Sèvres | 2 | 3.8% | 0.1% | 78 km |
| 16 | Avranches Manche | 1.9 | 1.5% | 0% | 2.5 km |
| 17 | Pont-Audemer Eure | 1.8 | 20% | 65% | 15 km |
| 18 | Jeumont Nord | 1.8 | 25% | 0.1% | 133 km |
| 19 | Ingré Loiret | 1.8 | 11% | 0% | 200 km |
| 20 | Le Muy Var | 1.7 | 35% | 46% | 16 km |
| 21 | Saint-Pierre-du-Mont Landes | 1.5 | 58% | 3.4% | 69 km |
| 22 | Léguevin Haute-Garonne | 1.5 | 14% | 0% | 161 km |
| 23 | Le Beausset Var | 1.5 | 18% | 69% | 7.1 km |
| 24 | Saint-Lys Haute-Garonne | 1.5 | 9.5% | 0% | 162 km |
| 25 | Aniche Nord | 1.4 | 6.8% | 0.1% | 98 km |
| 26 | Lambesc Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.3 | 32% | 65% | 33 km |
| 27 | Saint-Amand-Montrond Cher | 1.3 | 10% | 6.4% | 282 km |
| 28 | Apt Vaucluse | 1.2 | 29% | 100% | 58 km |
| 29 | Chambly Oise | 1.2 | 5.4% | 0.1% | 117 km |
| 30 | Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.2 | 0.1% | 45% | 3.8 km |
| 31 | Mazamet Tarn | 1.2 | 77% | 0.1% | 74 km |
| 32 | Ploërmel Morbihan | 1.1 | 15% | 0% | 39 km |
| 33 | La Farlède Var | 1.1 | 8.7% | 15% | 7.4 km |
| 34 | Couzeix Haute-Vienne | 1.1 | 21% | 0% | 163 km |
| 35 | Douchy-les-Mines Nord | 1 | 11% | 0% | 106 km |
| 36 | Bourg-de-Péage Drôme | 0.9 | 0.4% | 0% | 176 km |
| 37 | Lançon-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.7 | 2.7% | 80% | 23 km |
| 38 | Loudéac Côtes-d'Armor | 0.7 | 14% | 0% | 35 km |
| 39 | Lillers Pas-de-Calais | 0.5 | 7.8% | 0% | 53 km |
| 40 | Carentan-les-Marais Manche | 0.3 | 0.2% | 100% | On it |
| 41 | Saint-Loubès Gironde | 0.2 | 4% | 28% | 16 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 Auchel
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois de Saint-Pierre leads, at 60 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Les Charmes
Park or garden
0.8 ha0.2 km of path
Centralin the middle of Auchel
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Marais de Cambrin, Annequin, Cuinchy et Festubert nature reserve is the nearest protected area, 17 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Nature reserve
Marais de Cambrin, Annequin, Cuinchy et Festubert nature reserve
17 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
19 km of footpaths cross Auchel
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
19 km
3.1 km per km²
Hiking routes
0.7 km
waymarked: 0.1 km per km²
Woodland
8.6%
about 0.5 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
AuchelPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Footpaths3.1
Hiking routes0.1
024 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
AuchelPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Woodland8.6%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 76% 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. 99% of Auchel’s residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
3 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Via Francigena France 01, Calais - Arras17 km
Ollain - Béthune6.2 km
Tour de la Lys1.1 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Auchel: May to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Fiefs, 10 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 | 15.5 | 16.4 | 16.0 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.9 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 20 | 23 | 23 | 19 | 15 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 104 | 87 | 76 | 64 | 76 | 74 | 81 | 85 | 83 | 101 | 113 | 126 |
April is the driest month (64 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). 126 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 53 nights a year. The climate in Auchel →
Neighbors
Next to Auchel
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Cauchy-à-la-TourMarles-les-MinesCalonne-RicouartBurbureAllouagneLapugnoyAuchel
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auchel | 0% | 8.6% | 3.1 |
| Cauchy-à-la-Tour 2,593 · 1.4 km | 0% | 0.4% | 0.1 |
| Marles-les-Mines 5,411 · 2.1 km | 0% | 3.7% | 3.6 |
| Calonne-Ricouart 5,369 · 2.4 km | 0% | 1.5% | 1.8 |
| Burbure 2,834 · 3 km | 0% | 3.7% | 3 |
| Allouagne 2,823 · 3.9 km | 0% | 0.6% | 0.5 |
| Lapugnoy 3,481 · 4.6 km | 0% | 42% | 3 |
Lapugnoy 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 Auchel
Is Auchel in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Marais de Cambrin, Annequin, Cuinchy et Festubert nature reserve, 17 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Auchel?
OpenStreetMap maps 19 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.1 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²).
How much of Auchel is woodland?
8.6% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Auchel near the sea?
No: the coast is 55 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Auchel?
May 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.