Photo: E. de Rolland & D. Clouzet · Public domain46% of Cours is woodland, more than in 8 in 10 French towns
20 km of footpaths cross Cours (0.6 km per km²). No protected area reaches Cours; the nearest, Gîte à chauves-souris des mines de Vallossières (Natura 2000), is 16 km from the town center. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 3 km in Cours. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Rhône 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 Cours?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Cours apart: its woods. It is shorter on footpaths.
How Cours 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.
Cours has the 12th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,268 to 4,344 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Sevrier (4.3 km per km²) to Rives de l'Yon (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sevrier Haute-Savoie | 4.3 | 49% | 100% | 255 km |
| 2 | Saint-Maurice-de-Beynost Ain | 4 | 21% | 17% | 262 km |
| 3 | Leuville-sur-Orge Essonne | 3.8 | 15% | 0% | 166 km |
| 4 | Tigery Essonne | 3.6 | 41% | 0% | 176 km |
| 5 | Agneaux Manche | 3.5 | 10% | 0% | 25 km |
| 6 | Villard-de-Lans Isère | 3.4 | 57% | 100% | 188 km |
| 7 | Nilvange Moselle | 3.3 | 27% | 0% | 304 km |
| 8 | Roquettes Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 4.1% | 4.3% | 147 km |
| 9 | Courseulles-sur-Mer Calvados | 2.7 | 1% | 0% | On it |
| 10 | Saulxures-lès-Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.3 | 31% | 0% | 369 km |
| 11 | Coignières Yvelines | 2.3 | 29% | 0.1% | 137 km |
| 12 | Châtenois Bas-Rhin | 2 | 33% | 0% | 458 km |
| 13 | Steenvoorde Nord | 1.8 | 1.9% | 0% | 29 km |
| 14 | Lanvallay Côtes-d'Armor | 1.8 | 17% | 100% | 4.9 km |
| 15 | Is-sur-Tille Côte-d'Or | 1.6 | 41% | 0% | 388 km |
| 16 | Millery Rhône | 1.6 | 14% | 0% | 237 km |
| 17 | Hillion Côtes-d'Armor | 1.6 | 6.9% | 9% | On it |
| 18 | Le Val Var | 1.5 | 63% | 7.3% | 37 km |
| 19 | Louverné Mayenne | 1.5 | 3.9% | 0% | 74 km |
| 20 | Ecquevilly Yvelines | 1.4 | 26% | 0% | 124 km |
| 21 | Vimy Pas-de-Calais | 1.3 | 16% | 0% | 80 km |
| 22 | Saint-Aubin-d'Aubigné Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.8 | 12% | 0% | 38 km |
| 23 | Beaumont-lès-Valence Drôme | 0.8 | 9.8% | 0% | 157 km |
| 24 | Égletons Corrèze | 0.8 | 51% | 0.1% | 212 km |
| 25 | Chabanière Rhône | 0.8 | 17% | 0% | 230 km |
| 26 | Morestel Isère | 0.8 | 16% | 12% | 252 km |
| 27 | Pons Charente-Maritime | 0.8 | 10% | 13% | 22 km |
| 28 | Rang-du-Fliers Pas-de-Calais | 0.6 | 23% | 13% | 4.7 km |
| 29 | Nozay Loire-Atlantique | 0.6 | 9.7% | 0% | 52 km |
| 30 | Cours Rhône | 0.6 | 46% | 0% | 283 km |
| 31 | Bessières Haute-Garonne | 0.6 | 9.9% | 2.4% | 145 km |
| 32 | Châteauneuf-sur-Isère Drôme | 0.6 | 6.5% | 2.1% | 173 km |
| 33 | Friville-Escarbotin Somme | 0.5 | 2.1% | 100% | 7.2 km |
| 34 | Saint-Savin Isère | 0.5 | 17% | 15% | 244 km |
| 35 | Eyragues Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.5 | 0.4% | 0% | 43 km |
| 36 | Valence-en-Poitou Vienne | 0.4 | 20% | 0% | 100 km |
| 37 | Ussac Corrèze | 0.4 | 24% | 0% | 167 km |
| 38 | Pontorson Manche | 0.4 | 0.4% | 6.2% | On it |
| 39 | Montélier Drôme | 0.3 | 2.2% | 0% | 165 km |
| 40 | Breteuil Eure | 0.3 | 31% | 0.2% | 78 km |
| 41 | Rives de l'Yon Vendée | 0.3 | 7.1% | 0% | 25 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Gîte à chauves-souris des mines de Vallossières is the nearest protected area, 16 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Gîte à chauves-souris des mines de Vallossières
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.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
20 km of footpaths cross Cours
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 83% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 89% 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 Cours is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
A named hiking route within 2 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Cours: April, June, July and September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Machezal, 19 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) | 9.0 | 10.3 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 14.9 | 15.7 | 15.4 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.4 | 8.6 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 7 | 11 | 15 | 19 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 16 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 53 | 44 | 48 | 66 | 84 | 71 | 79 | 82 | 63 | 80 | 91 | 60 |
February is the driest month (44 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 91 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 56 nights a year. The climate in Cours →
Next to Cours
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cours | 0% | 46% | 0.6 |
| Thizy-les-Bourgs 5,771 · 7 km | 0% | 22% | 0.6 |
| Chauffailles 3,638 · 12 km | 0% | 32% | 0.4 |
| Charlieu 3,766 · 14 km | 0% | 5.4% | 1.7 |
| Amplepuis 4,876 · 14 km | 0% | 29% | 0.4 |
| Pouilly-sous-Charlieu 2,588 · 17 km | 2.7% | 8.3% | 0.8 |
| Mably 7,233 · 20 km | 4.4% | 6.8% | 1.2 |
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 Cours
Is Cours in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Gîte à chauves-souris des mines de Vallossières, 16 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Cours?
OpenStreetMap maps 20 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 3 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Cours is woodland?
46% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Cours near the sea?
No: the coast is 283 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Cours?
April, June, July and 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.