Photo: PIERRE ANDRE LECLERCQ · CC BY-SA 4.0Parks, woods and footpaths in L'Île-d'Olonne
Footpaths add up to 7 km across L'Île-d'Olonne (0.3 km per km²). Mapped woodland covers 2.2% of L'Île-d'Olonne. 22% of L'Île-d'Olonne’s land lies in protected areas. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Vendée 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 L'Île-d'Olonne?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets L'Île-d'Olonne apart: the sea nearby. It is shorter on footpaths.
How L'Île-d'Olonne 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.
L'Île-d'Olonne has the 9th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (2,771 to 2,833 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 | Pabu Côtes-d'Armor | 3.6 | 22% | 0% | 15 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 | Saint-Saturnin Sarthe | 1.9 | 8.9% | 0% | 129 km |
| 7 | Candé Maine-et-Loire | 1.9 | 16% | 0% | 91 km |
| 8 | Peyruis Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 1.8 | 53% | 6.2% | 90 km |
| 9 | Arles-sur-Tech Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.7 | 72% | 6.8% | 36 km |
| 10 | Ibos Hautes-Pyrénées | 1.7 | 31% | 0% | 126 km |
| 11 | Anzin-Saint-Aubin Pas-de-Calais | 1.7 | 6.2% | 0% | 77 km |
| 12 | Les Adrets-de-l'Estérel Var | 1.6 | 80% | 0% | 9.2 km |
| 13 | Le Faouët Morbihan | 1.4 | 21% | 7.3% | 24 km |
| 14 | L'Isle-sur-le-Doubs Doubs | 1.4 | 50% | 0% | 413 km |
| 15 | Colombiers Hérault | 1.2 | 1.4% | 0% | 13 km |
| 16 | Charolles Saône-et-Loire | 1.2 | 20% | 0% | 320 km |
| 17 | Saint-Aignan Loir-et-Cher | 1 | 31% | 0% | 218 km |
| 18 | La Fère Aisne | 0.9 | 12% | 11% | 134 km |
| 19 | Ducey-Les Chéris Manche | 0.9 | 13% | 7.8% | 5.3 km |
| 20 | Amancy Haute-Savoie | 0.8 | 14% | 0% | 271 km |
| 21 | Connerré Sarthe | 0.7 | 23% | 0% | 144 km |
| 22 | Ayguesvives Haute-Garonne | 0.7 | 8.4% | 0% | 128 km |
| 23 | Arcis-sur-Aube Aube | 0.7 | 10% | 0% | 256 km |
| 24 | Uzerche Corrèze | 0.7 | 22% | 0.9% | 176 km |
| 25 | Meslay-du-Maine Mayenne | 0.7 | 1% | 0% | 96 km |
| 26 | Bourron-Marlotte Seine-et-Marne | 0.7 | 42% | 22% | 211 km |
| 27 | Longny les Villages Orne | 0.5 | 35% | 100% | 104 km |
| 28 | Baixas Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.5 | 0% | 3.9% | 19 km |
| 29 | Saint-Loup-sur-Semouse Haute-Saône | 0.5 | 46% | 46% | 422 km |
| 30 | Cour-Cheverny Loir-et-Cher | 0.4 | 41% | 29% | 229 km |
| 31 | Blangy-sur-Bresle Seine-Maritime | 0.4 | 32% | 0.5% | 23 km |
| 32 | Courville-sur-Eure Eure-et-Loir | 0.4 | 0.2% | 0% | 127 km |
| 33 | L'Île-d'Olonne Vendée | 0.3 | 2.2% | 22% | 4.2 km |
| 34 | Grandvilliers Oise | 0.3 | 0.4% | 0% | 60 km |
| 35 | Rosières-aux-Salines Meurthe-et-Moselle | 0.3 | 24% | 0% | 381 km |
| 36 | Buchy Seine-Maritime | 0.3 | 4.8% | 0% | 42 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 |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
9 in 10 residents of L'Île-d'Olonne 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 200 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.
22% of L'Île-d'Olonne lies in protected areas
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Dunes, forêt et marais d’Olonne
Dunes, forêt et marais d’Olonne
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.
22% of L'Île-d'Olonne’s land is protected, more than in 79% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Vendée has 0%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
7 km of footpaths and 7 km of hiking routes cross L'Île-d'Olonne
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 92% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland less than in 88% 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
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in L'Île-d'Olonne: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at La Mothe Achard, 13 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) | 9.0 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 15.0 | 15.8 | 15.5 | 14.2 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.3 | 8.6 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 22 | 18 | 13 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 105 | 77 | 69 | 71 | 62 | 45 | 50 | 59 | 82 | 107 | 119 | 114 |
June is the driest month (45 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 119 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 26 nights a year. The climate in L'Île-d'Olonne →
Next to L'Île-d'Olonne
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L'Île-d'Olonne | 22% | 2.2% | 0.3 | 4.2 km |
| Brem-sur-Mer 2,993 · 5.4 km | 5.7% | 11% | 0.5 | 2 km |
| Les Sables-d'Olonne 49,603 · 7 km | 26% | 16% | 2.8 | On it |
| Sainte-Foy 2,717 · 8.9 km | 0.8% | 6.9% | 0.6 | 8.6 km |
| Bretignolles-sur-Mer 5,344 · 9.3 km | 23% | 9.6% | 2.5 | On it |
| Les Achards 5,518 · 11 km | 0% | 4.6% | 0.9 | 15 km |
| Coëx 3,428 · 15 km | 0% | 4.5% | 0.3 | 12 km |
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 L'Île-d'Olonne
Is L'Île-d'Olonne in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 22% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in L'Île-d'Olonne?
OpenStreetMap maps 7 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.3 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 7 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of L'Île-d'Olonne is woodland?
2.2% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is L'Île-d'Olonne near the sea?
No: the coast is 4.2 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in L'Île-d'Olonne?
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 9, 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.