First pick
Bois Magneux
Wood or forest · 80 m outside the commune
38 ha1.8 km of path
25 minto walk all 1.8 km of path
3.1 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Archeor80 · CC BY-SA 4.08.8%of the land protected
Outdoors in Boves · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Almost every home in Boves is within 800 m of a park or wood
Mapped woodland covers 24% of Boves. Footpaths add up to 21 km across Boves (0.8 km per km²). Boves has 15 km of waymarked hiking routes. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
8.8%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
24%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
21 km
0.8 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
15 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
5
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Bois Magneux
Throughout this page, the Somme 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 Boves 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 areas8.8%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
70out of 100
Woodland24%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
69out of 100
Footpaths0.8 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
26out of 100
Hiking routes0.6 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
66out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Boves has the 20th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (3,208 to 3,259 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Saint-Quay-Portrieux (4.1 km per km²) to Albias (0 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint-Quay-Portrieux Côtes-d'Armor | 4.1 | 0% | 0% | On it |
| 2 | L'Île-Rousse Haute-Corse | 3.6 | 0% | 0% | On it |
| 3 | Volx Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 3.1 | 37% | 100% | 71 km |
| 4 | Lespinasse Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 1.6% | 0% | 156 km |
| 5 | Ville-di-Pietrabugno Haute-Corse | 2.7 | 25% | 0% | On it |
| 6 | Bousse Moselle | 2.6 | 33% | 0% | 316 km |
| 7 | Jard-sur-Mer Vendée | 2.1 | 21% | 43% | On it |
| 8 | Ormoy Essonne | 2 | 25% | 0% | 180 km |
| 9 | Magland Haute-Savoie | 1.9 | 44% | 19% | 257 km |
| 10 | Fretin Nord | 1.8 | 3.1% | 0% | 72 km |
| 11 | Montagny Rhône | 1.7 | 25% | 0% | 235 km |
| 12 | Bréviandes Aube | 1.4 | 26% | 0% | 277 km |
| 13 | Rochecorbon Indre-et-Loire | 1.3 | 21% | 7.3% | 190 km |
| 14 | Saint-Geniès-de-Malgoirès Gard | 1.3 | 32% | 0% | 44 km |
| 15 | Saint-Parres-aux-Tertres Aube | 1.2 | 8.7% | 0.6% | 274 km |
| 16 | Veynes Hautes-Alpes | 1.1 | 51% | 63% | 137 km |
| 17 | Romilly-sur-Andelle Eure | 1.1 | 39% | 5.8% | 66 km |
| 18 | Magnac-sur-Touvre Charente | 1 | 22% | 3.1% | 82 km |
| 19 | Haveluy Nord | 0.8 | 4.2% | 99% | 101 km |
| 20 | Boves Somme | 0.8 | 24% | 8.8% | 63 km |
| 21 | Saint-Sauveur-Villages Manche | 0.8 | 2% | 35% | 13 km |
| 22 | Offranville Seine-Maritime | 0.8 | 4.5% | 0% | 5.3 km |
| 23 | Moussy-le-Neuf Seine-et-Marne | 0.8 | 26% | 0.2% | 141 km |
| 24 | Frévent Pas-de-Calais | 0.7 | 13% | 0% | 44 km |
| 25 | Anould Vosges | 0.6 | 49% | 0.1% | 443 km |
| 26 | Flixecourt Somme | 0.6 | 26% | 0% | 34 km |
| 27 | Bram Aude | 0.6 | 3.5% | 0% | 81 km |
| 28 | Lansargues Hérault | 0.5 | 0.6% | 27% | 10 km |
| 29 | Carentoir Morbihan | 0.5 | 20% | 0% | 40 km |
| 30 | Bavay Nord | 0.4 | 4% | 100% | 121 km |
| 31 | La Tour-du-Crieu Ariège | 0.4 | 0% | 0% | 114 km |
| 32 | Montendre Charente-Maritime | 0.4 | 17% | 15% | 23 km |
| 33 | Azay-sur-Cher Indre-et-Loire | 0.3 | 15% | 0% | 189 km |
| 34 | Brou Eure-et-Loir | 0.3 | 2.2% | 0% | 149 km |
| 35 | Vonnas Ain | 0.3 | 9.9% | 0% | 304 km |
| 36 | Aix-Villemaur-Pâlis Aube | 0.3 | 26% | 0.9% | 263 km |
| 37 | Illiers-Combray Eure-et-Loir | 0.3 | 8.1% | 0% | 142 km |
| 38 | Picauville Manche | 0.2 | 2.9% | 100% | 15 km |
| 39 | Verneuil-l'Étang Seine-et-Marne | 0.2 | 9.8% | 0% | 189 km |
| 40 | Argentonnay Deux-Sèvres | 0.1 | 5.2% | 4.8% | 91 km |
| 41 | Albias Tarn-et-Garonne | 0 | 4.8% | 1.4% | 173 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 Boves
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bois Magneux leads, at 38 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Bois de Fau Timon
Wood or forest
27 ha2.3 km of path
30 minto walk all 2.3 km of path
2 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Bois du Bon Air
Wood or forest · 120 m outside the commune
40 ha
5.6 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Bois du Pendu
Wood or forest · 0 m outside the commune
3.5 ha
2 km northfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Place de la Victoire
Park or garden · 320 m outside the commune
0.5 ha
3.3 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
8.8% of Boves 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
Étangs et marais du bassin de la Somme
8.7% of the commune
Nature reserve
Étang Saint-Ladre nature reserve
1 km from the town center
Natura 2000 site
Tourbières et marais de l’Avre
3.1% of the commune0.3 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area8.8%
Nature reserve0.5%
Natura 2000 site8.8%
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.
8.8% of Boves’ land is protected, more than in 70% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Somme has 0.4%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
21 km of footpaths and 15 km of hiking routes cross Boves
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
21 km
0.8 km per km²
Hiking routes
15 km
waymarked: 0.6 km per km²
Woodland
24%
about 6.1 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
BovesSomme medianFrance median
Footpaths0.8
Hiking routes0.6
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
BovesSomme medianFrance median
Woodland24%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 74% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 69% 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 Boves is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
4 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Ailly-sur-Noye - Pommera19 km
Chemin d'Amiens à Compiègne7.3 km
Péronne - Amiens1.8 km
Le Marais de Glisy0.5 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Boves: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Amiens-Glisy, 2.8 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) | 8.5 | 10.0 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.4 | 16.3 | 15.9 | 14.4 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 9.0 | 8.1 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 21 | 16 | 11 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 49 | 45 | 45 | 39 | 56 | 55 | 59 | 60 | 48 | 58 | 60 | 72 |
April is the driest month (39 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 72 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 45 nights a year. The climate in Boves →
Neighbors
Next to Boves
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
LongueauCamonRiveryAmiensVillers-BretonneuxSalouëlBoves
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
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 Boves
Is Boves in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 8.8% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Boves?
OpenStreetMap maps 21 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.8 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 15 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Boves is woodland?
24% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Boves near the sea?
No: the coast is 63 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Boves?
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.