Photo: Pierre André Leclercq · CC BY-SA 4.063% of Merlimont’s land is protected for nature
Merlimont has 23 km of waymarked hiking routes. Mapped woodland covers 28% of Merlimont. 32 km of footpaths cross Merlimont (1.6 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
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 outdoors place is Merlimont?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Merlimont apart: its protected countryside, then the sea.
How Merlimont 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.
Merlimont has the 20th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (3,311 to 3,371 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Collégien (5.9 km per km²) to La Ville-Dieu-du-Temple (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Collégien Seine-et-Marne | 5.9 | 29% | 0% | 165 km |
| 2 | Frépillon Val-d'Oise | 4.3 | 19% | 0.2% | 126 km |
| 3 | Champ-sur-Drac Isère | 3.9 | 51% | 24% | 193 km |
| 4 | Bernin Isère | 3.7 | 28% | 14% | 207 km |
| 5 | Briis-sous-Forges Essonne | 3.5 | 22% | 0.1% | 157 km |
| 6 | Renage Isère | 3.1 | 31% | 0% | 215 km |
| 7 | Saint-Maximin Oise | 3 | 54% | 88% | 120 km |
| 8 | Roscoff Finistère | 3 | 0% | 0.4% | On it |
| 9 | Seilh Haute-Garonne | 3 | 15% | 12% | 156 km |
| 10 | Houplin-Ancoisne Nord | 3 | 4.4% | 0% | 66 km |
| 11 | Buchelay Yvelines | 2.8 | 7.5% | 0% | 108 km |
| 12 | Cocheren Moselle | 2.6 | 36% | 0% | 360 km |
| 13 | Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon Loire-Atlantique | 2.2 | 18% | 31% | 29 km |
| 14 | Ceyzériat Ain | 2 | 41% | 0.6% | 305 km |
| 15 | Doubs Doubs | 2 | 37% | 0% | 361 km |
| 16 | Le Folgoët Finistère | 1.9 | 3.7% | 0% | 8.1 km |
| 17 | Vourles Rhône | 1.8 | 6.6% | 0% | 240 km |
| 18 | Salles-d'Aude Aude | 1.7 | 12% | 19% | 9 km |
| 19 | Saint-Cast-le-Guildo Côtes-d'Armor | 1.7 | 12% | 100% | On it |
| 20 | Merlimont Pas-de-Calais | 1.6 | 28% | 63% | On it |
| 21 | Aigues-Vives Gard | 1.3 | 4.2% | 13% | 21 km |
| 22 | Hulluch Pas-de-Calais | 1.3 | 7.9% | 0% | 69 km |
| 23 | Mareuil-lès-Meaux Seine-et-Marne | 1.1 | 18% | 0.6% | 163 km |
| 24 | Boissy-le-Châtel Seine-et-Marne | 1.1 | 20% | 0% | 184 km |
| 25 | Bonifacio Corse-du-Sud | 1.1 | 11% | 18% | On it |
| 26 | Précy-sur-Oise Oise | 1 | 14% | 100% | 119 km |
| 27 | Villelongue-de-la-Salanque Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.8 | 0.1% | 0% | 4.5 km |
| 28 | Wizernes Pas-de-Calais | 0.7 | 6.8% | 100% | 32 km |
| 29 | Louvigné-du-Désert Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.6 | 4.2% | 0% | 24 km |
| 30 | Veuzain-sur-Loire Loir-et-Cher | 0.5 | 24% | 6.2% | 220 km |
| 31 | Saint-Andiol Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.5 | 0% | 0% | 43 km |
| 32 | Chaumont-en-Vexin Oise | 0.5 | 18% | 0% | 93 km |
| 33 | Saint-André-de-Corcy Ain | 0.3 | 20% | 49% | 272 km |
| 34 | Évry-Grégy-sur-Yerre Seine-et-Marne | 0.3 | 13% | 0% | 180 km |
| 35 | Palau-del-Vidre Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.2 | 1% | 2.8% | 7.1 km |
| 36 | Descartes Indre-et-Loire | 0.2 | 15% | 0% | 158 km |
| 37 | Val-au-Perche Orne | 0.2 | 21% | 100% | 128 km |
| 38 | Cérans-Foulletourte Sarthe | 0.2 | 34% | 0% | 139 km |
| 39 | Castillon-la-Bataille Gironde | 0.1 | 12% | 1.5% | 47 km |
| 40 | Ambès Gironde | 0.1 | 5.4% | 58% | 4.6 km |
| 41 | La Ville-Dieu-du-Temple Tarn-et-Garonne | 0.1 | 9% | 0% | 180 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Protected land in and around Merlimont
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Dunes de Merlimont
Côte d’Opale nature reserve
Dunes et marais arrière-littoraux de la plaine maritime picarde
Marais de Balançon
Baie de Canche et couloir des trois estuaires
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.
63% of Merlimont’s land is protected, more than in 88% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Pas-de-Calais has 0%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
32 km of footpaths and 23 km of hiking routes cross Merlimont
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 52% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 74% 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 Merlimont is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
14 named hiking routes within 2 km
+2 more
GR 120 passes within 2 km of Merlimont.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Merlimont: May to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Le-Touquet, 6.5 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 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 20 | 16 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 77 | 62 | 54 | 50 | 59 | 56 | 59 | 73 | 77 | 101 | 114 | 107 |
April is the driest month (50 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 22 °C). 114 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 36 nights a year. The climate in Merlimont →
Next to Merlimont
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merlimont | 63% | 28% | 1.6 | On it |
| Cucq 5,129 · 3.3 km | 8.6% | 2.7% | 1.5 | On it |
| Rang-du-Fliers 4,297 · 4.6 km | 13% | 23% | 0.6 | 4.7 km |
| Berck 12,951 · 5.8 km | 29% | 19% | 2.3 | On it |
| Le Touquet-Paris-Plage 4,224 · 6.8 km | 9.8% | 23% | 5 | On it |
| Verton 2,571 · 6.9 km | 0% | 3.1% | 0.5 | 3.5 km |
| Étaples 10,710 · 7.4 km | 7% | 29% | 3.2 | On it |
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 Merlimont
Is Merlimont in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 63% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Merlimont?
OpenStreetMap maps 32 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 23 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Merlimont is woodland?
28% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Merlimont near the sea?
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 2.3 km from its center.
When is the best time for walking in Merlimont?
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.