First pick
Jardin des Gorguettes
Park or garden
1.4 ha0.4 km of path
Centralin the middle of Le Val
Chemin du Jardin
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Simon Pléau · CC BY 4.07.3%of the land protected
Outdoors in Le Val · protected areas, woods and footpaths
63% of Le Val is woodland, more than in 9 in 10 French towns
7.3% of Le Val’s land lies in protected areas. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 17 km in Le Val. 59 km of footpaths cross Le Val (1.5 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
7.3%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
63%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
59 km
1.5 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
17 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: Jardin des Gorguettes
The sea
37 km
from the town center to the coast
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.
Against French towns
How Le Val 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 areas7.3%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
68out of 100
Woodland63%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
96out of 100
Footpaths1.5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
46out of 100
Hiking routes0.4 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
57out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Le Val has the 18th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,299 to 4,367 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Sevrier (4.3 km per km²) to Buzançais (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sevrier Haute-Savoie | 4.3 | 49% | 100% | 255 km |
| 2 | Saint-Maurice-de-Beynost Ain | 4 | 21% | 17% | 262 km |
| 3 | Tigery Essonne | 3.6 | 41% | 0% | 176 km |
| 4 | Villard-de-Lans Isère | 3.4 | 57% | 100% | 188 km |
| 5 | Nilvange Moselle | 3.3 | 27% | 0% | 304 km |
| 6 | Gattières Alpes-Maritimes | 2.7 | 27% | 80% | 9.5 km |
| 7 | Niederbronn-les-Bains Bas-Rhin | 2.6 | 74% | 100% | 417 km |
| 8 | Poulx Gard | 2.5 | 0.1% | 56% | 47 km |
| 9 | Saulxures-lès-Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.3 | 31% | 0% | 369 km |
| 10 | Coignières Yvelines | 2.3 | 29% | 0.1% | 137 km |
| 11 | Steenvoorde Nord | 1.8 | 1.9% | 0% | 29 km |
| 12 | Villeneuve Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 1.8 | 34% | 100% | 74 km |
| 13 | Cheval-Blanc Vaucluse | 1.7 | 19% | 100% | 42 km |
| 14 | Is-sur-Tille Côte-d'Or | 1.6 | 41% | 0% | 388 km |
| 15 | Millery Rhône | 1.6 | 14% | 0% | 237 km |
| 16 | Hillion Côtes-d'Armor | 1.6 | 6.9% | 9% | On it |
| 17 | Le Château-d'Oléron Charente-Maritime | 1.5 | 7.5% | 50% | On it |
| 18 | Le Val Var | 1.5 | 63% | 7.3% | 37 km |
| 19 | Louverné Mayenne | 1.5 | 3.9% | 0% | 74 km |
| 20 | Cadenet Vaucluse | 1.1 | 28% | 100% | 42 km |
| 21 | Camon Somme | 1.1 | 5.6% | 14% | 57 km |
| 22 | Saint-Aubin-d'Aubigné Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.8 | 12% | 0% | 38 km |
| 23 | Beaumont-lès-Valence Drôme | 0.8 | 9.8% | 0% | 157 km |
| 24 | Égletons Corrèze | 0.8 | 51% | 0.1% | 212 km |
| 25 | Chabanière Rhône | 0.8 | 17% | 0% | 230 km |
| 26 | Morestel Isère | 0.8 | 16% | 12% | 252 km |
| 27 | Pons Charente-Maritime | 0.8 | 10% | 13% | 22 km |
| 28 | Langeais Indre-et-Loire | 0.7 | 71% | 100% | 163 km |
| 29 | Cours Rhône | 0.6 | 46% | 0% | 283 km |
| 30 | Bessières Haute-Garonne | 0.6 | 9.9% | 2.4% | 145 km |
| 31 | Friville-Escarbotin Somme | 0.5 | 2.1% | 100% | 7.2 km |
| 32 | Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat Haute-Vienne | 0.5 | 24% | 1.4% | 181 km |
| 33 | Saint-Savin Isère | 0.5 | 17% | 15% | 244 km |
| 34 | Sarralbe Moselle | 0.5 | 29% | 10% | 381 km |
| 35 | Valence-en-Poitou Vienne | 0.4 | 20% | 0% | 100 km |
| 36 | Ussac Corrèze | 0.4 | 24% | 0% | 167 km |
| 37 | Montélier Drôme | 0.3 | 2.2% | 0% | 165 km |
| 38 | Rives de l'Yon Vendée | 0.3 | 7.1% | 0% | 25 km |
| 39 | Roullet-Saint-Estèphe Charente | 0.2 | 16% | 3.1% | 65 km |
| 40 | Bassillac et Auberoche Dordogne | 0.1 | 49% | 0% | 116 km |
| 41 | Buzançais Indre | 0.1 | 28% | 5.7% | 206 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 Le Val
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Jardin des Gorguettes leads, at 1.4 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
7.3% of Le Val 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
Val d’Argens
7.3% of the commune1.7 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area7.3%
Natura 2000 site7.3%
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.
7.3% of Le Val’s land is protected, more than in 68% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Var has 19%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
59 km of footpaths and 17 km of hiking routes cross Le Val
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
59 km
1.5 km per km²
Hiking routes
17 km
waymarked: 0.4 km per km²
Woodland
63%
about 24.7 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Le ValVar medianFrance median
Footpaths1.5
Hiking routes0.4
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Le ValVar medianFrance median
Woodland63%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 54% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 96% 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 Le Val 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
Via Aurelia, Le Val - St Maximin16 km
Via Aurelia, Le Val - Fontrouvière7.2 km
Via Aurelia, Fontrouvière - Bras5.9 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Le Val: April to June
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Montfort-Sur-Argens_Sapc, 5.4 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 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.7 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 9.0 |
| High (°C) | 13 | 14 | 18 | 20 | 25 | 29 | 32 | 32 | 27 | 22 | 16 | 13 |
| Rain (mm) | 65 | 46 | 43 | 69 | 64 | 51 | 25 | 31 | 86 | 114 | 123 | 72 |
July is the driest month (25 mm) and the warmest (highs of 32 °C). 123 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 47 nights a year. Summer highs reach 32 °C, too hot for the outline. The climate in Le Val →
Neighbors
Next to Le Val
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
BrignolesCarcèsBrasForcalqueiretGaréoultTourvesLe Val
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
Brignoles, Carcès and Garéoult have at least twice as much protected land.
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 Le Val
Is Le Val in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 7.3% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Le Val?
OpenStreetMap maps 59 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 17 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Le Val is woodland?
63% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Le Val near the sea?
No: the coast is 37 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Le Val?
April to June: 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.