First pick
Parc de la Peupleraie
Park or garden
1.8 ha0.6 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.6 km of path
Centralin the middle of Charmes
Allée des Peupliers
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Orval · CC08%of the land protected
Outdoors in Charmes · protected areas, woods and footpaths
60% of Charmes is woodland, more than in 9 in 10 French towns
Footpaths add up to 8 km across Charmes (0.4 km per km²). Charmes has 15 km of waymarked hiking routes. Protected areas cover 8% of Charmes’ land. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
8%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
60%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
8.5 km
0.4 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
15 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: Parc de la Peupleraie
Throughout this page, the Vosges 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 Charmes?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A wooded commune60% mapped woodland, more than in 95% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.Few mapped footpaths0.4 km per km², against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.
What sets Charmes apart: its woods. It is shorter on footpaths.
Against French towns
How Charmes 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 areas8%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
69out of 100
Woodland60%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
95out of 100
Footpaths0.4 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
8out of 100
Hiking routes0.6 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
68out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Charmes has the 2nd fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,454 to 4,515 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Cap-d'Ail (10.8 km per km²) to Marans (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cap-d'Ail Alpes-Maritimes | 10.8 | 7.8% | 0.2% | On it |
| 2 | Jacob-Bellecombette Savoie | 7.4 | 26% | 45% | 232 km |
| 3 | Saint-Nicolas Pas-de-Calais | 4.8 | 2.8% | 0% | 79 km |
| 4 | Royat Puy-de-Dôme | 4.2 | 63% | 0.2% | 257 km |
| 5 | Nozay Essonne | 3.2 | 5.7% | 0% | 162 km |
| 6 | Maurecourt Yvelines | 3.2 | 15% | 0% | 125 km |
| 7 | Bretteville-sur-Odon Calvados | 3.2 | 4.3% | 0% | 17 km |
| 8 | La Chaussée-Saint-Victor Loir-et-Cher | 3 | 11% | 8.1% | 215 km |
| 9 | Montrabé Haute-Garonne | 3 | 6.6% | 0% | 142 km |
| 10 | Thourotte Oise | 2.8 | 8% | 0.8% | 116 km |
| 11 | Montigny-en-Ostrevent Nord | 2.8 | 13% | 0.4% | 92 km |
| 12 | Écrouves Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.6 | 23% | 100% | 346 km |
| 13 | Saint-Laurent-du-Pont Isère | 2.3 | 67% | 100% | 224 km |
| 14 | Villeneuve-de-la-Raho Pyrénées-Orientales | 2.2 | 0.2% | 0% | 9.8 km |
| 15 | Vinon-sur-Verdon Var | 2.1 | 34% | 100% | 57 km |
| 16 | Notre-Dame-d'Oé Indre-et-Loire | 1.9 | 2.7% | 0% | 189 km |
| 17 | Saint-Marcel Eure | 1.8 | 24% | 0% | 88 km |
| 18 | Rousson Gard | 1.8 | 28% | 0% | 70 km |
| 19 | Noirmoutier-en-l'Île Vendée | 1.7 | 4% | 38% | On it |
| 20 | Maintenon Eure-et-Loir | 1.6 | 28% | 0.5% | 130 km |
| 21 | Guise Aisne | 1.5 | 4.9% | 0% | 143 km |
| 22 | Marchiennes Nord | 1.4 | 38% | 100% | 91 km |
| 23 | Banyuls-sur-Mer Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.3 | 6.4% | 78% | On it |
| 24 | Plobsheim Bas-Rhin | 1.1 | 10% | 31% | 459 km |
| 25 | Saint-Pair-sur-Mer Manche | 0.9 | 2.5% | 4.5% | 0.9 km |
| 26 | Beaussais-sur-Mer Côtes-d'Armor | 0.9 | 12% | 100% | On it |
| 27 | Hergnies Nord | 0.9 | 8.5% | 100% | 94 km |
| 28 | Hesdin-la-Forêt Pas-de-Calais | 0.9 | 51% | 0% | 28 km |
| 29 | Chancelade Dordogne | 0.7 | 48% | 0% | 100 km |
| 30 | Lamotte-Beuvron Loir-et-Cher | 0.7 | 52% | 100% | 239 km |
| 31 | Villeneuve-lès-Béziers Hérault | 0.6 | 1.8% | 30% | 7.4 km |
| 32 | Mesnil-Roc'h Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.6 | 36% | 100% | 8.2 km |
| 33 | Montagnac Hérault | 0.6 | 11% | 14% | 17 km |
| 34 | Lunel-Viel Hérault | 0.6 | 4.6% | 0% | 13 km |
| 35 | La Réole Gironde | 0.5 | 7.2% | 6.5% | 64 km |
| 36 | Pineuilh Gironde | 0.5 | 8.5% | 2.2% | 67 km |
| 37 | Jarnac Charente | 0.5 | 6.2% | 23% | 53 km |
| 38 | Gonfaron Var | 0.4 | 42% | 23% | 21 km |
| 39 | Freneuse Yvelines | 0.4 | 34% | 51% | 100 km |
| 40 | Charmes Vosges | 0.4 | 60% | 8% | 391 km |
| 41 | Marans Charente-Maritime | 0.2 | 0.3% | 100% | 11 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 Charmes
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc de la Peupleraie leads, at 1.8 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
8% of Charmes 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
Vallée de la Moselle (secteur Chatel-Tonnoy)
8% of the commune0.4 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area8%
Natura 2000 site8%
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.
8% of Charmes’ land is protected, more than in 69% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Vosges has 2.4%.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
8 km of footpaths and 15 km of hiking routes cross Charmes
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
8.5 km
0.4 km per km²
Hiking routes
15 km
waymarked: 0.6 km per km²
Woodland
60%
about 14.2 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
CharmesVosges medianFrance median
Footpaths0.4
Hiking routes0.6
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
CharmesVosges medianFrance median
Woodland60%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 92% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 95% 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 Charmes is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
6 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 50116 km
GR 5075.5 km
Circuit entre Vignes et Clochers12 km
Variante Bois Banni3.5 km
Variante de la Plaine de Socourt2.5 km
Circuit de la Viacelle0.5 km
2 GR routes pass within 2 km of Charmes: GR 501 and GR 507.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Charmes: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Roville, 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) | 8.7 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.2 | 16.1 | 15.7 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.1 | 8.3 |
| High (°C) | 5 | 7 | 11 | 16 | 19 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 15 | 9 | 6 |
| Rain (mm) | 66 | 59 | 59 | 56 | 76 | 74 | 74 | 68 | 72 | 77 | 74 | 79 |
April is the driest month (56 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 79 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 79 nights a year. The climate in Charmes →
Neighbors
Next to Charmes
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
MirecourtThaon-les-VosgesDamelevièresGolbeyBlainville-sur-l'EauChantraineCharmes
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charmes | 8% | 60% | 0.4 |
| Mirecourt 4,700 · 14 km | 0% | 20% | 1 |
| Thaon-les-Vosges 8,547 · 16 km | 0% | 41% | 0.6 |
| Damelevières 3,080 · 22 km | 0% | 46% | 1.6 |
| Golbey 8,832 · 22 km | 0% | 26% | 2.2 |
| Blainville-sur-l'Eau 3,893 · 22 km | 0% | 46% | 0.6 |
| Chantraine 3,198 · 25 km | 0% | 74% | 7.1 |
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 Charmes
Is Charmes in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 8% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Charmes?
OpenStreetMap maps 8 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.4 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 15 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Charmes is woodland?
60% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Charmes near the sea?
No: the coast is 391 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Charmes?
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.