First pick
Forêt domaniale de Mervent-Vouvant
Wood or forest
664 ha38.7 km of path
8 h 35 minto walk all 38.7 km of path
2 km north-westfrom the center
Chemin du BelvédèreAllée Crémillon
Directionsto a point inside
5.1%of the land protected
Outdoors in Mervent · protected areas, woods and footpaths
47% of Mervent is woodland, more than in 8 in 10 French towns
67 km of footpaths cross Mervent (3 km per km²). Mervent has 16 km of waymarked hiking routes. Protected areas cover 5.1% of Mervent’s land. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
5.1%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
47%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
67 km
3 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
16 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Green space nearby
90%
of residents within 800 m of a park or wood
Compared town: 100%
The sea
39 km
from the town center to the coast
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.
Against French towns
How Mervent 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 areas5.1%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
65out of 100
Woodland47%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
90out of 100
Footpaths3 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
73out of 100
Hiking routes0.7 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
72out of 100
Green space nearby90%Share of residents within 800 m of a mapped park or wood
8out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Mervent has the 4th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (1,063 to 2,582 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From École-Valentin (3.9 km per km²) to Bouligny (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | École-Valentin Doubs | 3.9 | 16% | 0% | 405 km |
| 2 | Sainte-Foy-la-Grande Gironde | 3.7 | 0% | 8.7% | 66 km |
| 3 | Mers-les-Bains Somme | 3.5 | 10% | 100% | On it |
| 4 | Mervent Vendée | 3 | 47% | 5.1% | 39 km |
| 5 | Villejust Essonne | 2.4 | 4.4% | 0% | 160 km |
| 6 | Sainte-Feyre Creuse | 2.1 | 30% | 0% | 222 km |
| 7 | Camiers Pas-de-Calais | 2 | 30% | 32% | On it |
| 8 | Sain-Bel Rhône | 1.9 | 12% | 0% | 253 km |
| 9 | La Rivière-Saint-Sauveur Calvados | 1.8 | 14% | 29% | On it |
| 10 | Fareins Ain | 1.8 | 8.8% | 0.1% | 279 km |
| 11 | Entzheim Bas-Rhin | 1.7 | 1.5% | 0% | 449 km |
| 12 | Mornas Vaucluse | 1.5 | 35% | 5% | 84 km |
| 13 | Watten Nord | 1.4 | 24% | 100% | 18 km |
| 14 | Rantigny Oise | 1.4 | 18% | 0% | 109 km |
| 15 | Beautor Aisne | 1.3 | 3.6% | 40% | 133 km |
| 16 | Conques-sur-Orbiel Aude | 1.3 | 8.1% | 0% | 60 km |
| 17 | Barcelonnette Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 1.3 | 46% | 100% | 91 km |
| 18 | Granges-Aumontzey Vosges | 1.1 | 70% | 90% | 436 km |
| 19 | Cattenom Moselle | 1.1 | 37% | 0% | 308 km |
| 20 | Prayssac Lot | 1 | 42% | 0% | 151 km |
| 21 | Chatte Isère | 0.7 | 24% | 0% | 190 km |
| 22 | Arelaune-en-Seine Seine-Maritime | 0.7 | 69% | 100% | 29 km |
| 23 | La Croix-en-Touraine Indre-et-Loire | 0.7 | 24% | 0% | 199 km |
| 24 | Criel-sur-Mer Seine-Maritime | 0.7 | 4.9% | 7% | On it |
| 25 | Lusignan Vienne | 0.7 | 17% | 0% | 97 km |
| 26 | Avelin Nord | 0.6 | 6.1% | 0% | 72 km |
| 27 | Civray Vienne | 0.5 | 19% | 0% | 101 km |
| 28 | Le Cailar Gard | 0.4 | 2% | 68% | 17 km |
| 29 | Vervins Aisne | 0.4 | 1.1% | 0% | 164 km |
| 30 | Port-Sainte-Foy-et-Ponchapt Dordogne | 0.4 | 13% | 2.1% | 65 km |
| 31 | Frans Ain | 0.4 | 4% | 0% | 275 km |
| 32 | Toucy Yonne | 0.4 | 24% | 0% | 288 km |
| 33 | Auxi-le-Château Pas-de-Calais | 0.3 | 25% | 1% | 31 km |
| 34 | Vivy Maine-et-Loire | 0.3 | 15% | 100% | 140 km |
| 35 | Nogent-sur-Vernisson Loiret | 0.2 | 46% | 0.3% | 249 km |
| 36 | Eymet Dordogne | 0.2 | 8.6% | 0.4% | 86 km |
| 37 | Athies-sous-Laon Aisne | 0.2 | 8.9% | 0% | 159 km |
| 38 | Val-de-Scie Seine-Maritime | 0.1 | 18% | 0% | 23 km |
| 39 | Noyen-sur-Sarthe Sarthe | 0.1 | 28% | 0% | 126 km |
| 40 | Chalamont Ain | 0.1 | 20% | 69% | 284 km |
| 41 | Bouligny Meuse | 0.1 | 8.4% | 0% | 293 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 Mervent
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Forêt domaniale de Mervent-Vouvant leads, at 664 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc de la Mairie
Park or garden
0.8 ha0.2 km of path
1.4 km westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Close to home
9 in 10 residents of Mervent 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).
90% within 800 m10% further
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
MerventVendée medianFrance median
Within 800 m90%
0%50%100%
About 100 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 areas
5.1% of Mervent 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
Forêt de Mervent-Vouvant et ses abords
5.1% of the commune0.8 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area5.1%
Natura 2000 site5.1%
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.
5.1% of Mervent’s land is protected, more than in 65% 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
67 km of footpaths and 16 km of hiking routes cross Mervent
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
67 km
3 km per km²
Hiking routes
16 km
waymarked: 0.7 km per km²
Woodland
47%
about 10.6 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
MerventVendée medianFrance median
Footpaths3
Hiking routes0.7
024 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
MerventVendée medianFrance median
Woodland47%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 73% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 90% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
4 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Boucle du Domaine de Mélusine31 km
De St-Cyr-des-Gâts à La Chapelle-aux-Lys15 km
Boucle de la Châtaigneraie et des Mines8.6 km
Accès Domaine de Mélusine de Fontenay1.1 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Mervent: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Surin_Sapc, 23 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 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 24 | 27 | 27 | 23 | 18 | 13 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 99 | 75 | 73 | 70 | 69 | 56 | 58 | 56 | 70 | 97 | 101 | 113 |
June is the driest month (56 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 27 °C). 113 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 32 nights a year. The climate in Mervent →
Neighbors
Next to Mervent
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Fontenay-le-ComteLa ChâtaigneraieBenetMoncoutant-sur-SèvreSaint-Jean-d'HermineMagnéMervent
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mervent | 5.1% | 47% | 3 | 39 km |
| Fontenay-le-Comte 14,059 · 8.5 km | 100% | 2% | 1.1 | 31 km |
| La Châtaigneraie 2,600 · 13 km | 0% | 4.5% | 0.6 | 48 km |
| Benet 4,089 · 21 km | 100% | 0.7% | 0.2 | 41 km |
| Moncoutant-sur-Sèvre 5,121 · 24 km | 0% | 7% | 0.2 | 62 km |
| Saint-Jean-d'Hermine 3,611 · 25 km | 2.4% | 9.2% | 0.4 | 27 km |
| Magné 2,728 · 28 km | 100% | 15% | 0.8 | 44 km |
Fontenay-le-Comte, Benet and Magné 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 Mervent
Is Mervent in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 5.1% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Mervent?
OpenStreetMap maps 67 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 16 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Mervent is woodland?
47% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Mervent near the sea?
No: the coast is 39 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Mervent?
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 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.