First pick
Prairie de la Berthaudière
Park or garden
2.7 ha0.8 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.8 km of path
1.2 km north-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: This picture belongs to Xavier Caré . · CC BY-SA 3.08.4%of the land protected
Outdoors in Décines-Charpieu · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Décines-Charpieu has more footpaths per km² than 8 in 10 French towns
Footpaths add up to 73 km across Décines-Charpieu (4.2 km per km²). 6.3% of Décines-Charpieu is mapped woodland. Protected areas cover 8.4% of Décines-Charpieu’s land. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
8.4%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
6.3%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
73 km
4.2 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
5.8 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
3
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Prairie de la Berthaudière
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.
Against French towns
How Décines-Charpieu 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 areas8.4%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
70out of 100
Woodland6.3%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
28out of 100
Footpaths4.2 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
86out of 100
Hiking routes0.3 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
49out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Décines-Charpieu has the 16th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (28,534 to 31,189 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Cachan (11.5 km per km²) to Villemomble (1.4 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cachan Val-de-Marne | 11.5 | 1.2% | 0% | 155 km |
| 2 | Lyon 1er Rhône | 11.3 | 1.1% | 0% | 253 km |
| 3 | Guyancourt Yvelines | 8.9 | 22% | 0% | 145 km |
| 4 | Le Plessis-Robinson Hauts-de-Seine | 8.6 | 13% | 0% | 153 km |
| 5 | Lyon 2e Rhône | 8.3 | 0% | 0% | 251 km |
| 6 | Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle | 8.1 | 18% | 0% | 367 km |
| 7 | Saint-Cloud Hauts-de-Seine | 7.8 | 27% | 0% | 145 km |
| 8 | Clichy-sous-Bois Seine-Saint-Denis | 7.6 | 29% | 22% | 153 km |
| 9 | Tournefeuille Haute-Garonne | 7.5 | 9.4% | 0% | 153 km |
| 10 | L'Haÿ-les-Roses Val-de-Marne | 7.5 | 4% | 0% | 156 km |
| 11 | Vanves Hauts-de-Seine | 7.3 | 3.4% | 0% | 150 km |
| 12 | Villiers-le-Bel Val-d'Oise | 7 | 5.1% | 0% | 138 km |
| 13 | Ermont Val-d'Oise | 6.9 | 0% | 0% | 133 km |
| 14 | Savigny-le-Temple Seine-et-Marne | 6.5 | 15% | 0% | 183 km |
| 15 | Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt Yvelines | 6.3 | 21% | 0% | 144 km |
| 16 | Charenton-le-Pont Val-de-Marne | 5.9 | 0.7% | 0% | 155 km |
| 17 | Fresnes Val-de-Marne | 5.7 | 3.6% | 0% | 158 km |
| 18 | Malakoff Hauts-de-Seine | 5.6 | 0% | 0% | 151 km |
| 19 | Viry-Châtillon Essonne | 5.4 | 4.4% | 0% | 168 km |
| 20 | Liévin Pas-de-Calais | 4.7 | 5.2% | 0% | 74 km |
| 21 | Bois-Colombes Hauts-de-Seine | 4.6 | 0% | 0% | 141 km |
| 22 | Draveil Essonne | 4.6 | 47% | 0% | 168 km |
| 23 | Ris-Orangis Essonne | 4.6 | 7.7% | 0% | 171 km |
| 24 | Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire Loire-Atlantique | 4.5 | 9.9% | 23% | 41 km |
| 25 | Chatou Yvelines | 4.5 | 0.3% | 0% | 138 km |
| 26 | Décines-Charpieu Rhône | 4.2 | 6.3% | 8.4% | 255 km |
| 27 | Orvault Loire-Atlantique | 3.9 | 17% | 0% | 37 km |
| 28 | Sotteville-lès-Rouen Seine-Maritime | 3.9 | 1.4% | 0% | 53 km |
| 29 | Menton Alpes-Maritimes | 3.5 | 32% | 20% | On it |
| 30 | Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray Seine-Maritime | 3.4 | 28% | 0.3% | 53 km |
| 31 | Agde Hérault | 3.2 | 4.4% | 22% | On it |
| 32 | Périgueux Dordogne | 3.1 | 10% | 0% | 105 km |
| 33 | Montfermeil Seine-Saint-Denis | 2.9 | 8.2% | 5.5% | 155 km |
| 34 | Cambrai Nord | 2.8 | 4.5% | 0% | 111 km |
| 35 | Bourgoin-Jallieu Isère | 2.7 | 13% | 0% | 240 km |
| 36 | Maubeuge Nord | 2.6 | 2.2% | 0.1% | 129 km |
| 37 | La Garenne-Colombes Hauts-de-Seine | 2.2 | 0% | 0% | 141 km |
| 38 | Châtellerault Vienne | 1.6 | 4.3% | 0% | 140 km |
| 39 | Orange Vaucluse | 1.5 | 8% | 2.3% | 76 km |
| 40 | Vallauris Alpes-Maritimes | 1.5 | 16% | 0% | On it |
| 41 | Villemomble Seine-Saint-Denis | 1.4 | 0.7% | 0% | 154 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 Décines-Charpieu
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Prairie de la Berthaudière leads, at 2.7 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc des Droits de l'Homme
Park or garden
1.5 ha
1 km north-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Parc Maurice Sauthier
Park or garden
0.8 ha0.3 km of path
0.7 km north-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
8.4% of Décines-Charpieu lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Pelouses, milieux alluviaux et aquatiques de l’île de Miribel-Jonage
8.4% of the commune2.9 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area8.4%
Natura 2000 site8.4%
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.
8.4% of Décines-Charpieu’s land is protected, more than in 70% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Rhône has 0%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
Footpaths and woods in Décines-Charpieu
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
73 km
4.2 km per km²
Hiking routes
5.8 km
waymarked: 0.3 km per km²
Woodland
6.3%
about 1.1 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Décines-CharpieuRhône medianFrance median
Footpaths4.2
Hiking routes0.3
02.55 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Décines-CharpieuRhône medianFrance median
Woodland6.3%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 86% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 72% 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 Décines-Charpieu is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
6 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 4224.9 km
Tour de Lyon, du Fort de Vancia au Fort de Bron26 km
Le sentier des Allivoz4.6 km
Sentier du Cloizu0.6 km
Via Lugdunum, Geneva to Lyon0.4 km
Tour de Lyon, du Fort de Bron à Feyzin0.4 km
GR 422 passes within 2 km of Décines-Charpieu.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Décines-Charpieu: April and June to August
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Lyon-Bron, 5.2 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 | 8.7 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 9 | 14 | 17 | 22 | 26 | 28 | 28 | 23 | 18 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 50 | 42 | 49 | 69 | 81 | 74 | 67 | 66 | 83 | 100 | 87 | 54 |
February is the driest month (42 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 28 °C). 100 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 42 nights a year. The climate in Décines-Charpieu →
Neighbors
Next to Décines-Charpieu
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Vaulx-en-VelinChassieuMeyzieuBronGenasVilleurbanneDécines-Charpieu
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Décines-Charpieu | 8.4% | 6.3% | 4.2 |
| Vaulx-en-Velin 53,069 · 3 km | 35% | 16% | 3.9 |
| Chassieu 11,208 · 3.1 km | 0% | 0.5% | 3.3 |
| Meyzieu 36,687 · 3.4 km | 26% | 13% | 4.2 |
| Bron 42,982 · 5 km | 0% | 6.1% | 7.1 |
| Genas 13,421 · 5.5 km | 0% | 2.3% | 1.3 |
| Villeurbanne 163,684 · 5.8 km | 0.3% | 2.8% | 7.4 |
Vaulx-en-Velin and Meyzieu have at least twice as much protected land.
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 Décines-Charpieu
Is Décines-Charpieu in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 8.4% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Décines-Charpieu?
OpenStreetMap maps 73 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 4.2 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 6 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Décines-Charpieu is woodland?
6.3% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Décines-Charpieu near the sea?
No: the coast is 255 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Décines-Charpieu?
April and June to August: 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.