Photo: P.poschadel · CC BY-SA 2.0 frMériel has more footpaths per km² than 9 in 10 French towns
Footpaths add up to 32 km across Mériel (6 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 41% of Mériel. Mériel has 7 km of waymarked hiking routes. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Val-d'Oise 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 Mériel?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Mériel apart: its footpaths, then its woods.
How Mériel 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.
Mériel has the 2nd most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (5,289 to 5,411 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Cormelles-le-Royal (7.2 km per km²) to Plessé (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cormelles-le-Royal Calvados | 7.2 | 2.2% | 0% | 15 km |
| 2 | Mériel Val-d'Oise | 6 | 41% | 9.5% | 124 km |
| 3 | Barberaz Savoie | 4.4 | 26% | 50% | 232 km |
| 4 | Bethoncourt Doubs | 4.4 | 38% | 0% | 420 km |
| 5 | Marles-les-Mines Pas-de-Calais | 3.6 | 3.7% | 0% | 57 km |
| 6 | Mundolsheim Bas-Rhin | 3.5 | 6.5% | 0% | 445 km |
| 7 | Levens Alpes-Maritimes | 3 | 64% | 12% | 17 km |
| 8 | Charbonnières-les-Bains Rhône | 2.8 | 16% | 0% | 252 km |
| 9 | La Balme-de-Sillingy Haute-Savoie | 2.6 | 41% | 0% | 269 km |
| 10 | Bretignolles-sur-Mer Vendée | 2.5 | 9.6% | 23% | On it |
| 11 | Peyrolles-en-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.4 | 63% | 69% | 38 km |
| 12 | Dechy Nord | 2.3 | 13% | 0% | 92 km |
| 13 | Plouhinec Morbihan | 2 | 24% | 32% | On it |
| 14 | Villers-le-Lac Doubs | 2 | 45% | 100% | 370 km |
| 15 | Calonne-Ricouart Pas-de-Calais | 1.8 | 1.5% | 0% | 56 km |
| 16 | Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours Seine-et-Marne | 1.8 | 45% | 29% | 214 km |
| 17 | Erquinghem-Lys Nord | 1.7 | 2.6% | 0% | 51 km |
| 18 | Cruseilles Haute-Savoie | 1.6 | 40% | 21% | 273 km |
| 19 | Idron Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 1.6 | 15% | 4.1% | 100 km |
| 20 | Tresses Gironde | 1.5 | 9.1% | 0% | 20 km |
| 21 | Gray Haute-Saône | 1.4 | 47% | 28% | 418 km |
| 22 | Bordères-sur-l'Échez Hautes-Pyrénées | 1.4 | 22% | 0% | 128 km |
| 23 | Commercy Meuse | 1.3 | 64% | 5.6% | 324 km |
| 24 | Vic-le-Comte Puy-de-Dôme | 1.2 | 19% | 100% | 241 km |
| 25 | Saint-Astier Dordogne | 1 | 33% | 8% | 89 km |
| 26 | Trèbes Aude | 1 | 9.6% | 0% | 54 km |
| 27 | Le Lion-d'Angers Maine-et-Loire | 1 | 5.4% | 0.8% | 115 km |
| 28 | Gambsheim Bas-Rhin | 0.9 | 13% | 13% | 450 km |
| 29 | Valence Tarn-et-Garonne | 0.9 | 8.2% | 0.6% | 154 km |
| 30 | Mouy Oise | 0.8 | 34% | 0% | 106 km |
| 31 | Drusenheim Bas-Rhin | 0.8 | 29% | 17% | 449 km |
| 32 | Chagny Saône-et-Loire | 0.8 | 38% | 0.8% | 376 km |
| 33 | Le Pellerin Loire-Atlantique | 0.7 | 2.7% | 64% | 24 km |
| 34 | Audruicq Pas-de-Calais | 0.7 | 0.2% | 0% | 12 km |
| 35 | Bléré Indre-et-Loire | 0.6 | 11% | 8.4% | 197 km |
| 36 | Garons Gard | 0.5 | 0.1% | 0% | 35 km |
| 37 | Parigné-l'Évêque Sarthe | 0.5 | 49% | 19% | 149 km |
| 38 | Reyrieux Ain | 0.4 | 11% | 2.2% | 270 km |
| 39 | Saint-Lyphard Loire-Atlantique | 0.4 | 6.2% | 100% | 8.4 km |
| 40 | Vindry-sur-Turdine Rhône | 0.4 | 17% | 0% | 260 km |
| 41 | Plessé Loire-Atlantique | 0.3 | 15% | 0.9% | 35 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
9.5% of Mériel lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Oise-Pays de France Regional Nature Park
Vexin Français Regional Nature Park
Marais de Stors nature reserve
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.
9.5% of Mériel’s land is protected, more than in 71% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Val-d'Oise has 0%. A regional nature park is a charter between communes to look after a landscape: farming, building and hunting go on inside it.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods in Mériel
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 94% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 86% 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 Mériel is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
3 named hiking routes within 2 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Mériel: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Pontoise -Ville, 9.5 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) | 8.6 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.3 | 16.2 | 15.8 | 14.4 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.0 | 8.2 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 13 | 17 | 21 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 22 | 17 | 12 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 58 | 52 | 49 | 45 | 62 | 54 | 49 | 53 | 46 | 64 | 59 | 75 |
April is the driest month (45 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 26 °C). 75 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 35 nights a year. The climate in Mériel →
Next to Mériel
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mériel | 9.5% | 41% | 6 |
| Frépillon 3,317 · 2.7 km | 0.2% | 19% | 4.3 |
| Méry-sur-Oise 9,983 · 2.8 km | 0% | 35% | 3.6 |
| Auvers-sur-Oise 6,863 · 3.4 km | 100% | 19% | 1.7 |
| Bessancourt 8,869 · 4 km | 0% | 29% | 4.6 |
| Parmain 5,655 · 4 km | 100% | 45% | 2.1 |
| L'Isle-Adam 12,493 · 4.5 km | 0.2% | 60% | 5.2 |
Auvers-sur-Oise and Parmain have at least twice as much protected land.
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 Mériel
Is Mériel in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Mériel lies in Oise-Pays de France Regional Nature Park (0.7% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Mériel?
OpenStreetMap maps 32 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 7 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Mériel is woodland?
41% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Mériel near the sea?
No: the coast is 124 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Mériel?
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.