First pick
City-Parc
Park or garden · 260 m outside the commune
2.1 ha1.5 km of path
20 minto walk all 1.5 km of path
1 km westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author or not provided · Public domain0.5%woodland
Outdoors in Vermelles · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Vermelles is within 800 m of a park or wood
0.5% of Vermelles is mapped woodland. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 8 km in Vermelles. No protected area reaches Vermelles; the nearest, Marais de Cambrin, Annequin, Cuinchy et Festubert nature reserve, is 3.5 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: Marais de Cambrin, Annequin, Cuinchy et Festubert nature reserve, 3.5 km
Woodland
0.5%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
12 km
1.1 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
8.1 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
1
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: City-Parc
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 Vermelles?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
On waymarked routes8 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.Protected land nearbyMarais de Cambrin, Annequin, Cuinchy et Festubert nature reserve is 3.5 km from the town center.Little mapped woodland0.5% of the land, against 13% for the median compared town.
What sets Vermelles apart: its hiking routes, then protected land close by. It is shorter on woodland.
Against French towns
How Vermelles 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
Woodland0.5%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
4out of 100
Footpaths1.1 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
36out of 100
Hiking routes0.8 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
75out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Vermelles has the 20th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,685 to 4,773 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Munster (3.6 km per km²) to Sanilhac (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Munster Haut-Rhin | 3.6 | 55% | 100% | 464 km |
| 2 | Bièvres Essonne | 3.5 | 31% | 0% | 154 km |
| 3 | Chasseneuil-du-Poitou Vienne | 3.4 | 6.9% | 30% | 121 km |
| 4 | Le Trait Seine-Maritime | 3.1 | 63% | 100% | 33 km |
| 5 | Reichstett Bas-Rhin | 2.9 | 18% | 0% | 446 km |
| 6 | L'Hermitage Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.8 | 4.9% | 0% | 43 km |
| 7 | La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.7 | 3% | 0% | 40 km |
| 8 | Ribeauvillé Haut-Rhin | 2.7 | 72% | 100% | 461 km |
| 9 | Chavagne Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.4 | 8% | 0% | 51 km |
| 10 | Village-Neuf Haut-Rhin | 2.2 | 9% | 36% | 424 km |
| 11 | Écouflant Maine-et-Loire | 2.1 | 10% | 46% | 123 km |
| 12 | Clohars-Carnoët Finistère | 2 | 24% | 1.3% | On it |
| 13 | Soufflenheim Bas-Rhin | 1.8 | 46% | 0.8% | 444 km |
| 14 | Saint-Martin-des-Champs Finistère | 1.7 | 17% | 1.4% | On it |
| 15 | Locminé Morbihan | 1.6 | 7.8% | 0% | 24 km |
| 16 | Marvejols Lozère | 1.6 | 19% | 0.1% | 125 km |
| 17 | Limas Rhône | 1.4 | 8.5% | 0% | 273 km |
| 18 | Sadirac Gironde | 1.4 | 37% | 3.6% | 29 km |
| 19 | Grésy-sur-Aix Savoie | 1.3 | 26% | 1.2% | 248 km |
| 20 | Vermelles Pas-de-Calais | 1.1 | 0.5% | 0% | 67 km |
| 21 | Saint-Paul-en-Jarez Loire | 1 | 18% | 97% | 217 km |
| 22 | Mirecourt Vosges | 1 | 20% | 0% | 386 km |
| 23 | Graveson Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.9 | 10% | 0% | 45 km |
| 24 | Rognes Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.9 | 51% | 12% | 34 km |
| 25 | La Charité-sur-Loire Nièvre | 0.8 | 9.6% | 13% | 319 km |
| 26 | Casteljaloux Lot-et-Garonne | 0.7 | 49% | 0.8% | 94 km |
| 27 | La Plaine-sur-Mer Loire-Atlantique | 0.7 | 6% | 0.1% | On it |
| 28 | Sanguinet Landes | 0.6 | 73% | 21% | 14 km |
| 29 | La Suze-sur-Sarthe Sarthe | 0.6 | 31% | 0% | 132 km |
| 30 | Saint-Méloir-des-Ondes Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.5 | 4.3% | 0.1% | On it |
| 31 | Venansault Vendée | 0.5 | 6.2% | 0% | 27 km |
| 32 | Salies-de-Béarn Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 0.5 | 34% | 27% | 46 km |
| 33 | Phalsbourg Moselle | 0.5 | 19% | 25% | 411 km |
| 34 | La Ferté-Gaucher Seine-et-Marne | 0.4 | 7.6% | 0% | 195 km |
| 35 | Beuzeville Eure | 0.4 | 2.8% | 0% | 10 km |
| 36 | Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire Charente | 0.4 | 3.4% | 7.8% | 46 km |
| 37 | Fumel Lot-et-Garonne | 0.4 | 33% | 0.1% | 135 km |
| 38 | Aigondigné Deux-Sèvres | 0.4 | 1.6% | 61% | 66 km |
| 39 | Herrlisheim Bas-Rhin | 0.3 | 6.9% | 3.3% | 448 km |
| 40 | Samer Pas-de-Calais | 0.3 | 20% | 100% | 12 km |
| 41 | Sanilhac Dordogne | 0.1 | 56% | 0% | 105 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 Vermelles
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: City-Parc leads, at 2.1 ha. Directions go to 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, 3.5 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
3.5 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
12 km of footpaths and 8 km of hiking routes cross Vermelles
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
12 km
1.1 km per km²
Hiking routes
8.1 km
waymarked: 0.8 km per km²
Woodland
0.5%
about 0.1 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
VermellesPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Footpaths1.1
Hiking routes0.8
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
VermellesPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Woodland0.5%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 64% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 96% 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 Vermelles is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Bully-Les-Mines - Terril 81A19 km
Béthune - Terril du Téléphérique8.9 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Vermelles: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Douai, 25 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 | 11 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 20 | 15 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 58 | 51 | 53 | 42 | 57 | 63 | 68 | 68 | 61 | 64 | 71 | 73 |
April is the driest month (42 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 73 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 48 nights a year. The climate in Vermelles →
Neighbors
Next to Vermelles
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
MazingarbeGrenayAuchy-les-MinesBully-les-MinesLabourseLoos-en-GohelleVermelles
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vermelles | 0% | 0.5% | 1.1 |
| Mazingarbe 8,217 · 2.4 km | 0% | 7.4% | 2.9 |
| Grenay 6,644 · 3.8 km | 0% | 6.7% | 6.3 |
| Auchy-les-Mines 4,625 · 4.1 km | 0% | 2.3% | 2.2 |
| Bully-les-Mines 12,146 · 4.6 km | 0% | 3.1% | 3.4 |
| Labourse 2,858 · 4.6 km | 0% | 6.2% | 5.2 |
| Loos-en-Gohelle 6,799 · 4.7 km | 0% | 3.6% | 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 Vermelles
Is Vermelles in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Marais de Cambrin, Annequin, Cuinchy et Festubert nature reserve, 3.5 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Vermelles?
OpenStreetMap maps 12 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.1 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 8 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Vermelles is woodland?
0.5% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Vermelles near the sea?
No: the coast is 67 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Vermelles?
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.