First pick
La Citadelle
Wood or forest
13 ha1.9 km of path
25 minto walk all 1.9 km of path
Centralin the middle of L'Île-d'Yeu
Chemin des Deux Moulins
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: OT L'île d'Yeu · CC BY-SA 3.044%of the land protected
Outdoors in L'Île-d'Yeu · protected areas, woods and footpaths
L'Île-d'Yeu is on the coast
44% of L'Île-d'Yeu’s land lies in protected areas. L'Île-d'Yeu has 47 km of waymarked hiking routes. Footpaths add up to 66 km across L'Île-d'Yeu (2.8 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
44%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
21%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
66 km
2.8 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
47 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: La Citadelle
The sea
On it
the commune touches the coast, 0.9 km from its center
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 place
What kind of outdoors place is L'Île-d'Yeu?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
On the coastThe commune touches the sea; the coast is 0.9 km from its center.On waymarked routes47 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.Protected countryside44% of the land lies in protected areas.
What sets L'Île-d'Yeu apart: the sea, then its hiking routes.
Against French towns
How L'Île-d'Yeu 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 areas44%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
86out of 100
Woodland21%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
65out of 100
Footpaths2.8 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
70out of 100
Hiking routes2 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
96out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
L'Île-d'Yeu has the 9th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,845 to 4,922 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Quiberon (6.6 km per km²) to Charny Orée de Puisaye (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quiberon Morbihan | 6.6 | 2.8% | 18% | On it |
| 2 | Grand-Fort-Philippe Nord | 4.5 | 0.1% | 0% | On it |
| 3 | Bogny-sur-Meuse Ardennes | 4.3 | 79% | 100% | 200 km |
| 4 | Phalempin Nord | 4 | 32% | 0% | 72 km |
| 5 | Ceyreste Bouches-du-Rhône | 3.7 | 42% | 49% | 2.9 km |
| 6 | Le Versoud Isère | 3.2 | 18% | 0% | 202 km |
| 7 | Pechbonnieu Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 15% | 0% | 150 km |
| 8 | Gratentour Haute-Garonne | 2.8 | 1.8% | 0% | 153 km |
| 9 | L'Île-d'Yeu Vendée | 2.8 | 21% | 44% | On it |
| 10 | La Turballe Loire-Atlantique | 2.7 | 13% | 24% | On it |
| 11 | Ballainvilliers Essonne | 2.4 | 2.3% | 0% | 164 km |
| 12 | Uchaud Gard | 2.1 | 32% | 2.7% | 26 km |
| 13 | Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines Haut-Rhin | 2 | 76% | 100% | 450 km |
| 14 | Volvic Puy-de-Dôme | 1.9 | 57% | 100% | 269 km |
| 15 | Plateau d'Hauteville Ain | 1.9 | 65% | 1.2% | 284 km |
| 16 | Lambres-lez-Douai Nord | 1.8 | 4.4% | 0% | 90 km |
| 17 | La Voulte-sur-Rhône Ardèche | 1.5 | 15% | 33% | 149 km |
| 18 | Le Quesnoy Nord | 1.4 | 2.1% | 100% | 120 km |
| 19 | Montbazon Indre-et-Loire | 1.2 | 29% | 0% | 178 km |
| 20 | Blendecques Pas-de-Calais | 1.1 | 18% | 84% | 32 km |
| 21 | Bruyères-sur-Oise Val-d'Oise | 1 | 3.1% | 0.2% | 122 km |
| 22 | Verneuil-sur-Vienne Haute-Vienne | 1 | 23% | 0% | 154 km |
| 23 | Mourmelon-le-Grand Marne | 1 | 29% | 0.1% | 226 km |
| 24 | Briare Loiret | 0.8 | 27% | 7.9% | 266 km |
| 25 | Sainte-Eulalie Gironde | 0.6 | 7.3% | 0% | 14 km |
| 26 | Bégard Côtes-d'Armor | 0.5 | 11% | 0% | 13 km |
| 27 | Fagnières Marne | 0.5 | 0.4% | 0% | 235 km |
| 28 | Écommoy Sarthe | 0.5 | 28% | 0.2% | 151 km |
| 29 | La Côte-Saint-André Isère | 0.5 | 10% | 0% | 218 km |
| 30 | Amplepuis Rhône | 0.4 | 29% | 0% | 269 km |
| 31 | Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule Allier | 0.4 | 6.2% | 9.3% | 311 km |
| 32 | Cazères Haute-Garonne | 0.4 | 4.1% | 11% | 162 km |
| 33 | Saint-Père-en-Retz Loire-Atlantique | 0.3 | 5.6% | 5.7% | 8.1 km |
| 34 | Saint-Sulpice-et-Cameyrac Gironde | 0.3 | 6.2% | 7.7% | 20 km |
| 35 | Vic-en-Bigorre Hautes-Pyrénées | 0.3 | 20% | 2.2% | 125 km |
| 36 | Bazas Gironde | 0.2 | 30% | 2.9% | 69 km |
| 37 | Castelnau-de-Médoc Gironde | 0.2 | 82% | 100% | 10 km |
| 38 | Vitry-en-Artois Pas-de-Calais | 0.2 | 5.6% | 0% | 90 km |
| 39 | Bonneval Eure-et-Loir | 0.1 | 9.3% | 30% | 159 km |
| 40 | Saint-Laurent-Médoc Gironde | 0.1 | 61% | 100% | 7.6 km |
| 41 | Charny Orée de Puisaye Yonne | 0.1 | 22% | 0% | 266 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 L'Île-d'Yeu
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: La Citadelle leads, at 13 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
44% of L'Île-d'Yeu 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
Côtes rocheuses, dunes, landes et marais de l’île d’Yeu
44% of the commune0.9 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Plateau rocheux de l’île d’Yeu
1.1 km from the town center
Natura 2000 site
Secteur marin de l’île d’Yeu jusqu’au continent
1.8 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area44%
Natura 2000 site44%
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.
44% of L'Île-d'Yeu’s land is protected, more than in 86% 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.
Footpaths and woods
66 km of footpaths and 47 km of hiking routes cross L'Île-d'Yeu
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
66 km
2.8 km per km²
Hiking routes
47 km
waymarked: 2 km per km²
Woodland
21%
about 5.1 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
L'Île-d'YeuVendée medianFrance median
Footpaths2.8
Hiking routes2
024 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
L'Île-d'YeuVendée medianFrance median
Woodland21%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 70% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 65% 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 L'Île-d'Yeu is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
5 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 8028 km
La Sente des Oyes9.2 km
La Sente de La Meule8.9 km
La Sente de Kreuzland8.2 km
La Sente du Noroît7.5 km
GR 80 passes within 2 km of L'Île-d'Yeu.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in L'Île-d'Yeu: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at St Jean de Mont, 25 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) | 8.9 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 15.0 | 15.8 | 15.5 | 14.2 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.3 | 8.6 |
| High (°C) | 10 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 23 | 18 | 14 | 11 |
| Rain (mm) | 85 | 63 | 55 | 58 | 53 | 39 | 37 | 45 | 63 | 94 | 98 | 95 |
July is the driest month (37 mm) and the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 98 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 30 nights a year. The climate in L'Île-d'Yeu →
Neighbors
Next to L'Île-d'Yeu
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Saint-Jean-de-MontsL'Île-d'Yeu
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L'Île-d'Yeu | 44% | 21% | 2.8 | On it |
| Saint-Jean-de-Monts 8,868 · 25 km | 73% | 13% | 2.2 | On it |
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 L'Île-d'Yeu
Is L'Île-d'Yeu in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 44% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in L'Île-d'Yeu?
OpenStreetMap maps 66 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2.8 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 47 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of L'Île-d'Yeu is woodland?
21% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is L'Île-d'Yeu near the sea?
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 0.9 km from its center.
When is the best time for walking in L'Île-d'Yeu?
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.