Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Thomas Drake · Public domainProtected areas cover 26% of Les Sables-d'Olonne’s land. Footpaths add up to 239 km across Les Sables-d'Olonne (2.8 km per km²). Waymarked hiking routes add up to 39 km in Les Sables-d'Olonne. 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.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Les Sables-d'Olonne apart: the sea, then its protected countryside.
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.
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (45,931 to 53,567 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Lyon 6e (12.3 km per km²) to Arles (0.4 km per km²).
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lyon 6e Rhône | 12.3 | 7% | 0% | 253 km |
| 2 | Massy Essonne | 9.4 | 5.3% | 0% | 158 km |
| 3 | Meudon Hauts-de-Seine | 9.3 | 44% | 0% | 150 km |
| 4 | Suresnes Hauts-de-Seine | 9.2 | 5.9% | 0% | 143 km |
| 5 | Sevran Seine-Saint-Denis | 9.1 | 10% | 7.9% | 150 km |
| 6 | Talence Gironde | 7.8 | 5.2% | 0% | 22 km |
| 7 | Paris 7e Paris | 6.9 | 0.4% | 0% | 148 km |
| 8 | Saint-Germain-en-Laye Yvelines | 6.8 | 68% | 0% | 135 km |
| 9 | Saint-Herblain Loire-Atlantique | 6.6 | 12% | 1.9% | 34 km |
| 10 | Choisy-le-Roi Val-de-Marne | 6.4 | 2.7% | 0% | 161 km |
| 11 | Marseille 4e Bouches-du-Rhône | 6.4 | 0.8% | 0% | 2.5 km |
| 12 | Épinay-sur-Seine Seine-Saint-Denis | 6.3 | 0.8% | 0% | 139 km |
| 13 | Lyon 5e Rhône | 5.9 | 8.8% | 0% | 251 km |
| 14 | Lyon 9e Rhône | 5.9 | 9.8% | 0% | 253 km |
| 15 | La Courneuve Seine-Saint-Denis | 5.8 | 15% | 23% | 145 km |
| 16 | Montrouge Hauts-de-Seine | 5.5 | 0.1% | 0% | 152 km |
| 17 | Vincennes Val-de-Marne | 5.5 | 0.1% | 0% | 154 km |
| 18 | Bondy Seine-Saint-Denis | 5.1 | 1.6% | 0% | 151 km |
| 19 | Rosny-sous-Bois Seine-Saint-Denis | 5.1 | 3.2% | 2.7% | 154 km |
| 20 | Melun Seine-et-Marne | 4.6 | 6.4% | 0% | 191 km |
| 21 | Laval Mayenne | 4.5 | 8.6% | 0% | 76 km |
| 22 | Saint-Priest Rhône | 4.4 | 4.1% | 0% | 247 km |
| 23 | Blois Loir-et-Cher | 4.3 | 30% | 5.8% | 216 km |
| 24 | Vaulx-en-Velin Rhône | 3.9 | 16% | 35% | 255 km |
| 25 | Évreux Eure | 3.6 | 26% | 12% | 74 km |
| 26 | Saint-Malo Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.5 | 3.8% | 33% | On it |
| 27 | Gennevilliers Hauts-de-Seine | 3.4 | 2.1% | 0% | 141 km |
| 28 | Saint-Quentin Aisne | 3.2 | 7.4% | 1.2% | 121 km |
| 29 | Livry-Gargan Seine-Saint-Denis | 3.1 | 10% | 0.7% | 152 km |
| 30 | Sartrouville Yvelines | 3 | 0.9% | 0% | 135 km |
| 31 | Martigues Bouches-du-Rhône | 3 | 13% | 0.2% | On it |
| 32 | Les Sables-d'Olonne Vendée | 2.8 | 16% | 26% | On it |
| 33 | Bastia Haute-Corse | 2.8 | 0.3% | 0% | On it |
| 34 | Alès Gard | 2.2 | 8% | 0% | 63 km |
| 35 | Grasse Alpes-Maritimes | 1.8 | 23% | 32% | 12 km |
| 36 | Aubagne Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.8 | 30% | 13% | 8.9 km |
| 37 | Albi Tarn | 1.7 | 2.6% | 0% | 118 km |
| 38 | Cagnes-sur-Mer Alpes-Maritimes | 1.6 | 20% | 2.1% | On it |
| 39 | Carcassonne Aude | 1.4 | 8.4% | 0% | 62 km |
| 40 | Brive-la-Gaillarde Corrèze | 1.2 | 27% | 0% | 167 km |
| 41 | Arles Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.4 | 3.1% | 90% | On it |
Tap a number to zoom to a park or wood. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Forêt domaniale d'Olonne leads, at 902 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
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.
26% of Les Sables-d'Olonne’s land is protected, more than in 81% 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.
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.
That is more than in 71% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 55% 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 Les Sables-d'Olonne is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at La Mothe Achard, 16 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 Les Sables-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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Les Sables-d'Olonne | 26% | 16% | 2.8 | On it |
| L'Île-d'Olonne 2,802 · 7 km | 22% | 2.2% | 0.3 | 4.2 km |
| Sainte-Foy 2,717 · 7.7 km | 0.8% | 6.9% | 0.6 | 8.6 km |
| Talmont-Saint-Hilaire 8,492 · 11 km | 8.5% | 6.9% | 0.6 | On it |
| Brem-sur-Mer 2,993 · 12 km | 5.7% | 11% | 0.5 | 2 km |
| Les Achards 5,518 · 14 km | 0% | 4.6% | 0.9 | 15 km |
| Bretignolles-sur-Mer 5,344 · 16 km | 23% | 9.6% | 2.5 | On it |
No, but 26% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
OpenStreetMap maps 239 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); 39 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
16% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 1.6 km from its center.
April to September: long days, mild highs and little rain, from Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at the nearest suitable station.
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.