First pick
Bois de Wisques
Wood or forest · 230 m outside the commune
126 ha0.5 km of path
3.8 km westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Bridge B (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer · Public domain100%of the land protected
Outdoors in Wizernes · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Wizernes lies inside Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park
100% of Wizernes’ land lies in protected areas. 4 km of footpaths cross Wizernes (0.7 km per km²). 6.8% of Wizernes is mapped woodland. 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
6.8%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
4.3 km
0.7 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
1.2 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 Wisques
The sea
32 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.
Against French towns
How Wizernes 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
99out of 100
Woodland6.8%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
30out of 100
Footpaths0.7 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
21out of 100
Hiking routes0.2 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
37out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Wizernes has the 15th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (3,290 to 3,348 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Frépillon (4.3 km per km²) to Ambès (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frépillon Val-d'Oise | 4.3 | 19% | 0.2% | 126 km |
| 2 | Champ-sur-Drac Isère | 3.9 | 51% | 24% | 193 km |
| 3 | Bernin Isère | 3.7 | 28% | 14% | 207 km |
| 4 | Briis-sous-Forges Essonne | 3.5 | 22% | 0.1% | 157 km |
| 5 | Lavérune Hérault | 3.1 | 6.9% | 0% | 11 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 | Houplin-Ancoisne Nord | 3 | 4.4% | 0% | 66 km |
| 10 | La Membrolle-sur-Choisille Indre-et-Loire | 2.2 | 19% | 0% | 184 km |
| 11 | Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon Loire-Atlantique | 2.2 | 18% | 31% | 29 km |
| 12 | Ceyzériat Ain | 2 | 41% | 0.6% | 305 km |
| 13 | Doubs Doubs | 2 | 37% | 0% | 361 km |
| 14 | Le Folgoët Finistère | 1.9 | 3.7% | 0% | 8.1 km |
| 15 | Vourles Rhône | 1.8 | 6.6% | 0% | 240 km |
| 16 | Merlimont Pas-de-Calais | 1.6 | 28% | 63% | On it |
| 17 | Mireval Hérault | 1.6 | 0.1% | 18% | 4.3 km |
| 18 | La Roche-Blanche Puy-de-Dôme | 1.5 | 12% | 7.8% | 249 km |
| 19 | Aigues-Vives Gard | 1.3 | 4.2% | 13% | 21 km |
| 20 | Mareuil-lès-Meaux Seine-et-Marne | 1.1 | 18% | 0.6% | 163 km |
| 21 | Boissy-le-Châtel Seine-et-Marne | 1.1 | 20% | 0% | 184 km |
| 22 | Bonifacio Corse-du-Sud | 1.1 | 11% | 18% | On it |
| 23 | Précy-sur-Oise Oise | 1 | 14% | 100% | 119 km |
| 24 | Carling Moselle | 0.9 | 11% | 0% | 351 km |
| 25 | Villelongue-de-la-Salanque Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.8 | 0.1% | 0% | 4.5 km |
| 26 | Montanay Rhône | 0.8 | 7.1% | 0% | 265 km |
| 27 | Wizernes Pas-de-Calais | 0.7 | 6.8% | 100% | 32 km |
| 28 | Louvigné-du-Désert Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.6 | 4.2% | 0% | 24 km |
| 29 | Rouans Loire-Atlantique | 0.5 | 5.5% | 30% | 18 km |
| 30 | Morhange Moselle | 0.5 | 7% | 0% | 367 km |
| 31 | Veuzain-sur-Loire Loir-et-Cher | 0.5 | 24% | 6.2% | 220 km |
| 32 | Chaumont-en-Vexin Oise | 0.5 | 18% | 0% | 93 km |
| 33 | Évry-Grégy-sur-Yerre Seine-et-Marne | 0.3 | 13% | 0% | 180 km |
| 34 | Malissard Drôme | 0.3 | 0.3% | 0% | 161 km |
| 35 | Palau-del-Vidre Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.2 | 1% | 2.8% | 7.1 km |
| 36 | Val-au-Perche Orne | 0.2 | 21% | 100% | 128 km |
| 37 | Airvault Deux-Sèvres | 0.2 | 13% | 18% | 95 km |
| 38 | Puiseaux Loiret | 0.2 | 2.6% | 1% | 207 km |
| 39 | Cérans-Foulletourte Sarthe | 0.2 | 34% | 0% | 139 km |
| 40 | Castillon-la-Bataille Gironde | 0.1 | 12% | 1.5% | 47 km |
| 41 | Ambès Gironde | 0.1 | 5.4% | 58% | 4.6 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 Wizernes
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois de Wisques leads, at 126 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Bois de l'Ermitage
Wood or forest · 0 m outside the commune
71 ha0.3 km of path
1.9 km 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 Wizernes
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
100% of the commune
Nature reserve
Plateau des Landes nature reserve
0.6 km from the town center
Natura 2000 site
Pelouses, bois acides à neutrocalcicoles, landes nord-atlantiques du plateau d’Helfaut et système alluvial de la moyenne vallée de l’Aa
0.7% of the commune0.6 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area100%
Regional nature park100%
Nature reserve0.1%
Natura 2000 site0.7%
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 Wizernes’ land is protected, more than in 99% 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
4 km of footpaths cross Wizernes
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
4.3 km
0.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
1.2 km
waymarked: 0.2 km per km²
Woodland
6.8%
about 0.4 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
WizernesPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Footpaths0.7
Hiking routes0.2
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
WizernesPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Woodland6.8%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 79% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 70% 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 Wizernes is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
3 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Tour de l'Audomarois12 km
Via Francigena France 01, Calais - Arras4.5 km
Sentier de la Rivière jaune2.6 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Wizernes: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Watten, 14 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 | 10.0 | 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 Wizernes →
Neighbors
Next to Wizernes
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
BlendecquesLonguenesseSaint-Martin-lez-TatinghemSaint-OmerArquesLumbresWizernes
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wizernes | 100% | 6.8% | 0.7 | 32 km |
| Blendecques 4,859 · 3.2 km | 84% | 18% | 1.1 | 32 km |
| Longuenesse 10,548 · 3.6 km | 100% | 8.8% | 3.7 | 29 km |
| Saint-Martin-lez-Tatinghem 5,843 · 4.6 km | 100% | 0.3% | 0.7 | 27 km |
| Saint-Omer 14,382 · 5 km | 100% | 2.8% | 1.6 | 28 km |
| Arques 9,431 · 5.5 km | 76% | 37% | 3.3 | 31 km |
| Lumbres 3,579 · 8 km | 100% | 24% | 1.3 | 31 km |
Arques and Lumbres are 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 Wizernes
Is Wizernes in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Wizernes lies in Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Wizernes?
OpenStreetMap maps 4 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.7 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 1 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Wizernes is woodland?
6.8% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Wizernes near the sea?
No: the coast is 32 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Wizernes?
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.