Lyon has more footpaths per km² than 9 in 10 French towns
Footpaths add up to 306 km across Lyon (6.4 km per km²). 3.9% of Lyon is mapped woodland. No protected area reaches Lyon; the nearest, Pelouses, milieux alluviaux et aquatiques de l’île de Miribel-Jonage (Natura 2000), is 5.1 km from the town center. 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 Lyon?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Lyon apart: its footpaths, then protected land close by. It is shorter on woodland.
How Lyon 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.
Lyon has the 17th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (119,019 to 519,127 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Paris 12e (16.7 km per km²) to Nîmes (1.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris 12e Paris | 16.7 | 30% | 0% | 153 km |
| 2 | Paris 16e Paris | 11.9 | 25% | 0% | 147 km |
| 3 | Grenoble Isère | 11.6 | 4.6% | 0% | 204 km |
| 4 | Paris 19e Paris | 11.1 | 2.1% | 0% | 148 km |
| 5 | Paris 20e Paris | 10.9 | 0.1% | 0% | 151 km |
| 6 | Rennes Ille-et-Vilaine | 10.8 | 6.4% | 0% | 49 km |
| 7 | Paris 14e Paris | 10.6 | 0.4% | 0% | 151 km |
| 8 | Paris 15e Paris | 9.6 | 0% | 0% | 149 km |
| 9 | Paris 13e Paris | 9.2 | 0.4% | 0% | 152 km |
| 10 | Tours Indre-et-Loire | 7.8 | 6.3% | 4.7% | 184 km |
| 11 | Lille Nord | 7.7 | 2.3% | 0% | 62 km |
| 12 | Villeurbanne Rhône | 7.4 | 2.8% | 0.3% | 253 km |
| 13 | Nantes Loire-Atlantique | 7.3 | 7.3% | 6.3% | 39 km |
| 14 | Saint-Denis Seine-Saint-Denis | 7 | 2.4% | 1.8% | 142 km |
| 15 | Metz Moselle | 6.8 | 8% | 0% | 329 km |
| 16 | Strasbourg Bas-Rhin | 6.4 | 17% | 22% | 451 km |
| 17 | Lyon Rhône | 6.4 | 3.9% | 0% | 251 km |
| 18 | Montpellier Hérault | 6.3 | 5.5% | 0.6% | 11 km |
| 19 | Angers Maine-et-Loire | 6.3 | 5.6% | 17% | 118 km |
| 20 | Boulogne-Billancourt Hauts-de-Seine | 6 | 2% | 0% | 147 km |
| 21 | Dijon Côte-d'Or | 6 | 6.5% | 0% | 402 km |
| 22 | Brest Finistère | 5.9 | 6.7% | 0% | On it |
| 23 | Toulouse Haute-Garonne | 5.9 | 3.7% | 3.3% | 147 km |
| 24 | Le Mans Sarthe | 5.5 | 6.6% | 0% | 135 km |
| 25 | Paris 11e Paris | 5.4 | 0% | 0% | 150 km |
| 26 | Paris 17e Paris | 5.1 | 0.2% | 0% | 145 km |
| 27 | Bordeaux Gironde | 4.9 | 1.2% | 10% | 18 km |
| 28 | Reims Marne | 4.8 | 2.1% | 1.1% | 199 km |
| 29 | Annecy Haute-Savoie | 4.6 | 29% | 0.2% | 260 km |
| 30 | Paris 18e Paris | 4.4 | 0.5% | 0% | 146 km |
| 31 | Amiens Somme | 3.8 | 3% | 0.7% | 55 km |
| 32 | Clermont-Ferrand Puy-de-Dôme | 3.7 | 4.6% | 0.7% | 258 km |
| 33 | Le Havre Seine-Maritime | 3.6 | 5.8% | 3.3% | On it |
| 34 | Toulon Var | 3.6 | 23% | 26% | On it |
| 35 | Saint-Étienne Loire | 3.5 | 31% | 33% | 210 km |
| 36 | Limoges Haute-Vienne | 3.3 | 15% | 0% | 163 km |
| 37 | Nice Alpes-Maritimes | 2.5 | 20% | 6.2% | On it |
| 38 | Perpignan Pyrénées-Orientales | 2.2 | 0.2% | 0.3% | 12 km |
| 39 | Aix-en-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.1 | 18% | 9.1% | 21 km |
| 40 | Saint-Denis Réunion | 1.6 | 62% | 73% | On it |
| 41 | Nîmes Gard | 1.3 | 29% | 4.6% | 37 km |
Pelouses, milieux alluviaux et aquatiques de l’île de Miribel-Jonage is the nearest protected area, 5.1 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Pelouses, milieux alluviaux et aquatiques de l’île de Miribel-Jonage
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.
Footpaths and woods in Lyon
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 more than in 95% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 82% 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 Lyon is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Lyon: April and June to August
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Lyon-Bron, 9.2 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 Lyon →
35 gardens to visit in Lyon
Named gardens in the commune.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and Wikidata.
Next to Lyon
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
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 Lyon
Is Lyon in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Pelouses, milieux alluviaux et aquatiques de l’île de Miribel-Jonage, 5.1 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Lyon?
OpenStreetMap maps 306 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 6.4 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 17 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Lyon is woodland?
3.9% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Lyon near the sea?
No: the coast is 251 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Lyon?
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.