Photo: Remi Mathis · CC BY-SA 4.0Le Castellet lies inside Sainte-Baume Regional Nature Park
Protected areas cover 81% of Le Castellet’s land. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 1 km in Le Castellet. Footpaths add up to 60 km across Le Castellet (1.3 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Var 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 Le Castellet?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Le Castellet apart: the regional nature park around it, then the sea nearby.
How Le Castellet 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.
Le Castellet has the 20th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (5,982 to 6,097 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Clapiers (9.8 km per km²) to Mesnils-sur-Iton (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clapiers Hérault | 9.8 | 42% | 3.1% | 14 km |
| 2 | Ablon-sur-Seine Val-de-Marne | 5.8 | 6.2% | 0% | 165 km |
| 3 | Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux Isère | 5.7 | 52% | 71% | 207 km |
| 4 | La Verrière Yvelines | 5.3 | 14% | 1.3% | 139 km |
| 5 | Fouquières-lès-Lens Pas-de-Calais | 4.7 | 22% | 0% | 78 km |
| 6 | Pecquencourt Nord | 4 | 24% | 9.5% | 93 km |
| 7 | Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer Var | 3.9 | 35% | 0% | On it |
| 8 | Noyelles-Godault Pas-de-Calais | 3.5 | 6.9% | 0.2% | 81 km |
| 9 | Mutzig Bas-Rhin | 3.4 | 44% | 0% | 439 km |
| 10 | Ostricourt Nord | 3.2 | 34% | 0% | 78 km |
| 11 | Esbly Seine-et-Marne | 3 | 12% | 0% | 164 km |
| 12 | Bois-le-Roi Seine-et-Marne | 2.8 | 31% | 18% | 199 km |
| 13 | Mondonville Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 27% | 0% | 161 km |
| 14 | Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau Loire-Atlantique | 2.4 | 15% | 29% | 26 km |
| 15 | Trith-Saint-Léger Nord | 2.1 | 6.9% | 0% | 106 km |
| 16 | Lavelanet Ariège | 2 | 40% | 0% | 97 km |
| 17 | Haute-Goulaine Loire-Atlantique | 1.6 | 12% | 31% | 46 km |
| 18 | Hersin-Coupigny Pas-de-Calais | 1.6 | 15% | 0% | 68 km |
| 19 | Pierrefeu-du-Var Var | 1.6 | 24% | 28% | 13 km |
| 20 | Saint-Girons Ariège | 1.5 | 36% | 100% | 155 km |
| 21 | Jouars-Pontchartrain Yvelines | 1.4 | 20% | 100% | 133 km |
| 22 | Le Castellet Var | 1.3 | 18% | 81% | 7.5 km |
| 23 | Mortagne-sur-Sèvre Vendée | 1.3 | 7.8% | 0% | 77 km |
| 24 | Sainte-Sigolène Haute-Loire | 1.3 | 40% | 1.3% | 188 km |
| 25 | Donzère Drôme | 1.2 | 22% | 8.5% | 110 km |
| 26 | Vaison-la-Romaine Vaucluse | 1.2 | 29% | 100% | 90 km |
| 27 | Pavilly Seine-Maritime | 1 | 21% | 0% | 36 km |
| 28 | Marly-la-Ville Val-d'Oise | 0.9 | 5.5% | 0% | 135 km |
| 29 | Gévezé Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.9 | 4% | 0% | 34 km |
| 30 | Saint-Cannat Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.8 | 21% | 34% | 29 km |
| 31 | Luc-la-Primaube Aveyron | 0.8 | 7.6% | 0% | 131 km |
| 32 | Maule Yvelines | 0.7 | 15% | 0% | 124 km |
| 33 | Condé-en-Normandie Calvados | 0.7 | 8.1% | 18% | 52 km |
| 34 | Corbie Somme | 0.6 | 16% | 4.5% | 66 km |
| 35 | Commentry Allier | 0.5 | 13% | 0% | 288 km |
| 36 | Fontenay-Trésigny Seine-et-Marne | 0.5 | 25% | 0% | 185 km |
| 37 | Bouillargues Gard | 0.5 | 0.8% | 29% | 37 km |
| 38 | Noves Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.5 | 5.9% | 7% | 46 km |
| 39 | Beauvoisin Gard | 0.4 | 7.3% | 46% | 25 km |
| 40 | Vexin-sur-Epte Eure | 0.3 | 16% | 2.2% | 91 km |
| 41 | Mesnils-sur-Iton Eure | 0.2 | 13% | 0% | 82 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
8 in 10 residents of Le Castellet live within 800 m of a park or wood
Each square is 1 resident in 100: in green, those within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or woodland edge (INSEE’s 200 m population grid against OpenStreetMap).
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
About 1,000 residents live further away. The distance is a straight line to the edge of a mapped park or wood, not a walk to a gate, and a wood can be private.
Protected land in and around Le Castellet
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Sainte-Baume Regional Nature Park
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.
81% of Le Castellet’s land is protected, more than in 90% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Var has 19%. 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.
60 km of footpaths cross Le Castellet
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 less than in 59% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 59% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR 51 passes within 2 km of Le Castellet.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Le Castellet: April to June and September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Le Castellet_Sapc, 2.7 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) | 9.3 | 10.5 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.7 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 13.9 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 9.0 |
| High (°C) | 14 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 31 | 31 | 27 | 22 | 17 | 14 |
| Rain (mm) | 69 | 41 | 38 | 50 | 47 | 20 | 7 | 15 | 66 | 92 | 98 | 66 |
July is the driest month (7 mm) and the warmest (highs of 31 °C). 98 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 31 nights a year. Summer highs reach 31 °C, too hot for the outline. The climate in Le Castellet →
Next to Le Castellet
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Castellet | 81% | 18% | 1.3 | 7.5 km |
| La Cadière-d'Azur 5,739 · 3.1 km | 68% | 19% | 0.7 | 4.5 km |
| Le Beausset 10,219 · 3.1 km | 69% | 18% | 1.5 | 7.1 km |
| Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer 11,658 · 6.4 km | 25% | 30% | 2.9 | On it |
| Bandol 8,267 · 7.6 km | 0% | 30% | 1.8 | On it |
| Cuges-les-Pins 6,236 · 9.3 km | 100% | 37% | 2.6 | 10 km |
| Sanary-sur-Mer 18,538 · 9.4 km | 0% | 16% | 2.2 | On it |
Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, Bandol and Cuges-les-Pins are more wooded.
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 Le Castellet
Is Le Castellet in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Le Castellet lies in Sainte-Baume Regional Nature Park (81% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Le Castellet?
OpenStreetMap maps 60 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.3 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 1 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Le Castellet is woodland?
18% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Le Castellet near the sea?
No: the coast is 7.5 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Le Castellet?
April to June and 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 8, 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.