First pick
Bois Joli
Wood or forest · 280 m outside the commune
68 ha6.3 km of path
1 h 25 minto walk all 6.3 km of path
3.5 km northfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Eric Touzé · CC BY-SA 4.010%woodland
Outdoors in Spay · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Spay is within 800 m of a park or wood
10 km of footpaths cross Spay (0.7 km per km²). No protected area reaches Spay; the nearest, Bas-Marais Tourbeux de la Basse-Goulandière nature reserve, is 13 km from the town center. Mapped woodland covers 10% of Spay. 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: Bas-Marais Tourbeux de la Basse-Goulandière nature reserve, 13 km
Woodland
10%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
9.7 km
0.7 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 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: Bois Joli
Throughout this page, the Sarthe 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 Spay 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
Woodland10%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
40out 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 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
12out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Spay has the 20th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (2,777 to 2,838 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Éleu-dit-Leauwette (5.5 km per km²) to Levroux (0 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Éleu-dit-Leauwette Pas-de-Calais | 5.5 | 16% | 0% | 76 km |
| 2 | Burbure Pas-de-Calais | 3 | 3.7% | 0% | 55 km |
| 3 | Pinsaguel Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 14% | 29% | 146 km |
| 4 | Cosnes-et-Romain Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.6 | 35% | 0% | 273 km |
| 5 | Montfort-l'Amaury Yvelines | 2.1 | 16% | 100% | 129 km |
| 6 | Candé Maine-et-Loire | 1.9 | 16% | 0% | 91 km |
| 7 | Peyruis Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 1.8 | 53% | 6.2% | 90 km |
| 8 | Arles-sur-Tech Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.7 | 72% | 6.8% | 36 km |
| 9 | Ibos Hautes-Pyrénées | 1.7 | 31% | 0% | 126 km |
| 10 | Anzin-Saint-Aubin Pas-de-Calais | 1.7 | 6.2% | 0% | 77 km |
| 11 | Le Faouët Morbihan | 1.4 | 21% | 7.3% | 24 km |
| 12 | L'Isle-sur-le-Doubs Doubs | 1.4 | 50% | 0% | 413 km |
| 13 | Colombiers Hérault | 1.2 | 1.4% | 0% | 13 km |
| 14 | Saint-Aignan Loir-et-Cher | 1 | 31% | 0% | 218 km |
| 15 | La Fère Aisne | 0.9 | 12% | 11% | 134 km |
| 16 | Ducey-Les Chéris Manche | 0.9 | 13% | 7.8% | 5.3 km |
| 17 | Amancy Haute-Savoie | 0.8 | 14% | 0% | 271 km |
| 18 | Langogne Lozère | 0.7 | 23% | 0.1% | 131 km |
| 19 | Connerré Sarthe | 0.7 | 23% | 0% | 144 km |
| 20 | Ayguesvives Haute-Garonne | 0.7 | 8.4% | 0% | 128 km |
| 21 | Arcis-sur-Aube Aube | 0.7 | 10% | 0% | 256 km |
| 22 | Spay Sarthe | 0.7 | 10% | 0% | 136 km |
| 23 | Uzerche Corrèze | 0.7 | 22% | 0.9% | 176 km |
| 24 | Meslay-du-Maine Mayenne | 0.7 | 1% | 0% | 96 km |
| 25 | Fère-en-Tardenois Aisne | 0.7 | 40% | 0% | 171 km |
| 26 | Longny les Villages Orne | 0.5 | 35% | 100% | 104 km |
| 27 | Baixas Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.5 | 0% | 3.9% | 19 km |
| 28 | Saint-Loup-sur-Semouse Haute-Saône | 0.5 | 46% | 46% | 422 km |
| 29 | Cour-Cheverny Loir-et-Cher | 0.4 | 41% | 29% | 229 km |
| 30 | Blangy-sur-Bresle Seine-Maritime | 0.4 | 32% | 0.5% | 23 km |
| 31 | Courville-sur-Eure Eure-et-Loir | 0.4 | 0.2% | 0% | 127 km |
| 32 | Vendays-Montalivet Gironde | 0.3 | 74% | 100% | On it |
| 33 | Grandvilliers Oise | 0.3 | 0.4% | 0% | 60 km |
| 34 | Rosières-aux-Salines Meurthe-et-Moselle | 0.3 | 24% | 0% | 381 km |
| 35 | Buchy Seine-Maritime | 0.3 | 4.8% | 0% | 42 km |
| 36 | Miremont Haute-Garonne | 0.2 | 7.8% | 0.2% | 139 km |
| 37 | Rodilhan Gard | 0.2 | 0% | 24% | 40 km |
| 38 | Wignehies Nord | 0.1 | 0.5% | 100% | 156 km |
| 39 | Sérifontaine Oise | 0.1 | 21% | 0% | 80 km |
| 40 | Listrac-Médoc Gironde | 0 | 72% | 100% | 8.3 km |
| 41 | Levroux Indre | 0 | 8.7% | 0% | 222 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 Spay
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois Joli leads, at 68 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Bas-Marais Tourbeux de la Basse-Goulandière nature reserve is the nearest protected area, 13 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Nature reserve
Bas-Marais Tourbeux de la Basse-Goulandière nature reserve
13 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
10 km of footpaths cross Spay
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
9.7 km
0.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
0 km
waymarked: 0 km per km²
Woodland
10%
about 1.4 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
SpaySarthe medianFrance median
Footpaths0.7
Hiking routes0
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
SpaySarthe medianFrance median
Woodland10%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 79% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 60% 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 Spay 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
Allonnes et ses patrimoines7.5 km
Le circuit des Buttes0.7 km
Boucle le ruisseau des Fillières0.4 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Spay: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Le Mans, 4.1 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) | 8.8 | 10.2 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.1 | 16.0 | 15.6 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.2 | 8.4 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 22 | 17 | 12 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 66 | 49 | 52 | 51 | 63 | 55 | 49 | 49 | 51 | 66 | 67 | 75 |
August is the driest month (49 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 26 °C). 75 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 40 nights a year. The climate in Spay →
Neighbors
Next to Spay
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
ArnageMoncé-en-BelinAllonnesGuécélardRoëzé-sur-SartheMulsanneSpay
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spay | 0% | 10% | 0.7 |
| Arnage 5,445 · 3.1 km | 0% | 11% | 1.6 |
| Moncé-en-Belin 3,697 · 4.8 km | 0% | 34% | 1.1 |
| Allonnes 10,739 · 4.8 km | 0% | 15% | 3.2 |
| Guécélard 3,202 · 4.9 km | 0% | 35% | 0.4 |
| Roëzé-sur-Sarthe 2,514 · 7 km | 0% | 20% | 0.2 |
| Mulsanne 5,244 · 7.6 km | 0% | 47% | 2.8 |
Moncé-en-Belin, Guécélard and Roëzé-sur-Sarthe 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 Spay
Is Spay in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Bas-Marais Tourbeux de la Basse-Goulandière nature reserve, 13 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Spay?
OpenStreetMap maps 10 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).
How much of Spay is woodland?
10% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Spay near the sea?
No: the coast is 136 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Spay?
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 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.