First pick
Parc Thermal de Contrexéville
Park or garden
6.9 ha3.3 km of path
45 minto walk all 3.3 km of path
Centralin the middle of Contrexéville
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Yorick Petey · CC BY-SA 3.034%woodland
Outdoors in Contrexéville · protected areas, woods and footpaths
34% of Contrexéville is woodland, more than in 8 in 10 French towns
No protected area reaches Contrexéville; the nearest, Bassigny, partie Lorraine (Natura 2000), is 7.7 km from the town center. 16 km of footpaths cross Contrexéville (1.1 km per km²). Contrexéville has 10 km of waymarked hiking routes. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Bassigny, partie Lorraine, 7.7 km
Woodland
34%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
16 km
1.1 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
10 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
3
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc Thermal de Contrexéville
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 Contrexéville?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A wooded commune34% mapped woodland, more than in 80% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.Protected land nearbyBassigny, partie Lorraine (Natura 2000) is 7.7 km from the town center.
What sets Contrexéville apart: its woods, then protected land close by.
Against French towns
How Contrexéville 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 areas0%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
22out of 100
Woodland34%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
80out of 100
Footpaths1.1 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
34out of 100
Hiking routes0.7 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
72out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Contrexéville has the 18th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (2,897 to 2,949 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Gevrey-Chambertin (3.4 km per km²) to Avord (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gevrey-Chambertin Côte-d'Or | 3.4 | 39% | 30% | 408 km |
| 2 | Giromagny Territoire de Belfort | 3 | 42% | 100% | 443 km |
| 3 | Saint-Étienne-de-Fontbellon Ardèche | 3 | 30% | 0.6% | 118 km |
| 4 | Blaye-les-Mines Tarn | 2.5 | 10% | 0% | 127 km |
| 5 | Smarves Vienne | 2.3 | 37% | 0% | 116 km |
| 6 | Montblanc Hérault | 1.5 | 18% | 0.1% | 12 km |
| 7 | Charquemont Doubs | 1.5 | 39% | 100% | 385 km |
| 8 | Bruyères Vosges | 1.4 | 70% | 2.4% | 428 km |
| 9 | Abrest Allier | 1.4 | 19% | 14% | 286 km |
| 10 | Orcet Puy-de-Dôme | 1.4 | 5.6% | 0% | 248 km |
| 11 | Péron Ain | 1.3 | 56% | 100% | 295 km |
| 12 | Drocourt Pas-de-Calais | 1.3 | 2.3% | 0% | 82 km |
| 13 | Tresserve Savoie | 1.3 | 6.1% | 66% | 245 km |
| 14 | Willems Nord | 1.3 | 7.6% | 0% | 69 km |
| 15 | Châteauneuf-du-Rhône Drôme | 1.2 | 16% | 0.8% | 116 km |
| 16 | Sérignan-du-Comtat Vaucluse | 1.2 | 28% | 1.7% | 82 km |
| 17 | Cany-Barville Seine-Maritime | 1.1 | 20% | 0% | 7.9 km |
| 18 | Contrexéville Vosges | 1.1 | 34% | 0% | 379 km |
| 19 | Bertrange Moselle | 0.9 | 21% | 0% | 313 km |
| 20 | Grandvillars Territoire de Belfort | 0.8 | 45% | 11% | 419 km |
| 21 | Port-sur-Saône Haute-Saône | 0.7 | 52% | 13% | 423 km |
| 22 | Joinville Haute-Marne | 0.7 | 61% | 0% | 317 km |
| 23 | Saint-Priest-Taurion Haute-Vienne | 0.6 | 45% | 0% | 175 km |
| 24 | Balbigny Loire | 0.6 | 12% | 5.8% | 251 km |
| 25 | Diémoz Isère | 0.5 | 9.8% | 0% | 238 km |
| 26 | Allonnes Maine-et-Loire | 0.5 | 20% | 100% | 141 km |
| 27 | Argentré Mayenne | 0.5 | 3.1% | 0% | 80 km |
| 28 | Labouheyre Landes | 0.5 | 74% | 100% | 30 km |
| 29 | Saint-Didier-sur-Chalaronne Ain | 0.4 | 7.4% | 4% | 297 km |
| 30 | Saint-Calais Sarthe | 0.4 | 2.9% | 0% | 165 km |
| 31 | Neuville-sur-Escaut Nord | 0.4 | 0.8% | 0% | 105 km |
| 32 | La Ferté-en-Ouche Orne | 0.4 | 13% | 1.4% | 65 km |
| 33 | Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon Deux-Sèvres | 0.4 | 10% | 100% | 35 km |
| 34 | Lalinde Dordogne | 0.4 | 44% | 2.8% | 106 km |
| 35 | Thiant Nord | 0.3 | 13% | 0% | 107 km |
| 36 | Yvrac Gironde | 0.3 | 7.7% | 0% | 17 km |
| 37 | Broons Côtes-d'Armor | 0.2 | 9.2% | 0% | 26 km |
| 38 | Rouillac Charente | 0.2 | 11% | 7% | 66 km |
| 39 | Auneuil Oise | 0.2 | 17% | 4.7% | 88 km |
| 40 | Fresnay-sur-Sarthe Sarthe | 0.2 | 6.9% | 0% | 112 km |
| 41 | Avord Cher | 0.1 | 3.2% | 0% | 300 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 Contrexéville
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc Thermal de Contrexéville leads, at 6.9 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Vit Tel ta Nature
Park or garden · 120 m outside the commune
3 ha0.2 km of path
2 km eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Bassigny, partie Lorraine is the nearest protected area, 7.7 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
Bassigny, partie Lorraine
7.7 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0%
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.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
16 km of footpaths and 10 km of hiking routes cross Contrexéville
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
16 km
1.1 km per km²
Hiking routes
10 km
waymarked: 0.7 km per km²
Woodland
34%
about 5.1 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
ContrexévilleVosges medianFrance median
Footpaths1.1
Hiking routes0.7
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
ContrexévilleVosges medianFrance median
Woodland34%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 66% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 80% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 99% of Contrexéville’s residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
2 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)
GR 71414 km
GR 5076 km
2 GR routes pass within 2 km of Contrexéville: GR 714 and GR 507.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Contrexéville: June to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Val-De-Meuse, 29 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) | 8.8 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.2 | 16.0 | 15.7 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.1 | 8.4 |
| High (°C) | 5 | 6 | 11 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 20 | 15 | 9 | 5 |
| Rain (mm) | 85 | 66 | 69 | 60 | 82 | 65 | 68 | 68 | 71 | 94 | 94 | 97 |
April is the driest month (60 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 97 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 83 nights a year. The climate in Contrexéville →
Neighbors
Next to Contrexéville
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
VittelMirecourtNeufchâteauContrexéville
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contrexéville | 0% | 34% | 1.1 |
| Vittel 4,780 · 4.4 km | 0% | 23% | 1.1 |
| Mirecourt 4,700 · 22 km | 0% | 20% | 1 |
| Neufchâteau 6,732 · 24 km | 0% | 33% | 0.8 |
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 Contrexéville
Is Contrexéville in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Bassigny, partie Lorraine, 7.7 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Contrexéville?
OpenStreetMap maps 16 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.1 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 10 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Contrexéville is woodland?
34% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Contrexéville near the sea?
No: the coast is 379 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Contrexéville?
June 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.