Photo: ThibautRe · CC BY-SA 4.0La Bresse lies inside Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Park
100% of La Bresse’s land lies in protected areas. Mapped woodland covers 58% of La Bresse. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 214 km in La Bresse. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
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 outdoors place is La Bresse?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets La Bresse apart: the regional nature park around it, then its woods.
How La Bresse 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.
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
La Bresse has the 5th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (3,827 to 3,878 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Saint-Palais-sur-Mer (5.1 km per km²) to Pipriac (0 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint-Palais-sur-Mer Charente-Maritime | 5.1 | 58% | 55% | On it |
| 2 | Collonges-sous-Salève Haute-Savoie | 5 | 40% | 51% | 283 km |
| 3 | Beaulieu-sur-Mer Alpes-Maritimes | 4.2 | 0.2% | 0.9% | On it |
| 4 | Réhon Meurthe-et-Moselle | 3.8 | 42% | 0% | 277 km |
| 5 | La Bresse Vosges | 3.5 | 58% | 100% | 450 km |
| 6 | Fraisses Loire | 2.7 | 33% | 0% | 203 km |
| 7 | La Plagne Tarentaise Savoie | 2.7 | 30% | 2.5% | 208 km |
| 8 | Pringy Seine-et-Marne | 2.6 | 24% | 100% | 189 km |
| 9 | Pleumeur-Bodou Côtes-d'Armor | 2.2 | 26% | 17% | On it |
| 10 | Bénodet Finistère | 1.9 | 12% | 0% | On it |
| 11 | Vagney Vosges | 1.9 | 59% | 100% | 440 km |
| 12 | Meyrargues Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.8 | 57% | 46% | 35 km |
| 13 | Saint-Valery-en-Caux Seine-Maritime | 1.8 | 4.3% | 3.2% | On it |
| 14 | Le Vigan Gard | 1.7 | 68% | 100% | 57 km |
| 15 | Saint-Cergues Haute-Savoie | 1.6 | 42% | 19% | 288 km |
| 16 | Saint-Mard Seine-et-Marne | 1.6 | 12% | 0% | 146 km |
| 17 | Sargé-lès-le-Mans Sarthe | 1.6 | 11% | 0% | 136 km |
| 18 | Châteaubernard Charente | 1.5 | 1.2% | 1.6% | 44 km |
| 19 | Le Thuit de l'Oison Eure | 1.5 | 11% | 0% | 46 km |
| 20 | Fléac Charente | 1.4 | 12% | 3.7% | 71 km |
| 21 | Genilac Loire | 1.3 | 14% | 0% | 223 km |
| 22 | La Croix-Valmer Var | 1.3 | 40% | 95% | On it |
| 23 | Ribécourt-Dreslincourt Oise | 1.2 | 37% | 1.5% | 116 km |
| 24 | Wimille Pas-de-Calais | 1.1 | 5.1% | 100% | 1.8 km |
| 25 | Saint-Léger-de-Linières Maine-et-Loire | 1 | 27% | 0% | 109 km |
| 26 | Violaines Pas-de-Calais | 0.8 | 4.8% | 0% | 63 km |
| 27 | Hasnon Nord | 0.8 | 47% | 100% | 94 km |
| 28 | Mondragon Vaucluse | 0.7 | 30% | 17% | 88 km |
| 29 | Lapalud Vaucluse | 0.6 | 5% | 6.7% | 96 km |
| 30 | Celles-sur-Belle Deux-Sèvres | 0.5 | 7.6% | 20% | 67 km |
| 31 | Villieu-Loyes-Mollon Ain | 0.4 | 24% | 17% | 276 km |
| 32 | Saint-Georges-sur-Loire Maine-et-Loire | 0.4 | 7.3% | 7.3% | 101 km |
| 33 | Ferrières-en-Gâtinais Loiret | 0.4 | 19% | 0% | 233 km |
| 34 | Mazères Ariège | 0.3 | 2% | 0.5% | 116 km |
| 35 | Jonquières-Saint-Vincent Gard | 0.3 | 0.1% | 29% | 41 km |
| 36 | Saint-André-de-l'Eure Eure | 0.3 | 11% | 0% | 89 km |
| 37 | Saint-Gildas-des-Bois Loire-Atlantique | 0.3 | 12% | 3.5% | 25 km |
| 38 | Gundershoffen Bas-Rhin | 0.3 | 23% | 0.1% | 422 km |
| 39 | Terranjou Maine-et-Loire | 0.2 | 8.6% | 0% | 118 km |
| 40 | Bosroumois Eure | 0.2 | 1.5% | 0% | 44 km |
| 41 | Pipriac Ille-et-Vilaine | 0 | 3.5% | 0% | 48 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Protected land in and around La Bresse
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Park
Tourbière de Machais nature reserve
Massif du Ventron nature reserve
Hautes-Chaumes du Rothenbach nature reserve
Massif vosgien
Tourbière de Machais et cirque de Blanchemer
Share of the commune’s land
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.
100% of La Bresse’s land is protected, more than in 99% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Vosges has 2.4%. A regional nature park is a charter between communes to look after a landscape: farming, building and hunting go on inside it.
All 12 protected areas
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
205 km of footpaths and 214 km of hiking routes cross La Bresse
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.
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
That is more than in 80% 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. 99% of La Bresse’s residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
42 named hiking routes within 2 km
+30 more
3 GR routes pass within 2 km of La Bresse: GR 533, GR 531 and GR 5.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in La Bresse: May to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Sewen - Lac Alfeld_Sapc, 21 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 | 15.1 | 16.0 | 15.7 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.2 | 8.4 |
| High (°C) | 4 | 5 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 19 | 14 | 8 | 5 |
| Rain (mm) | 285 | 218 | 215 | 129 | 161 | 121 | 132 | 135 | 140 | 203 | 220 | 324 |
June is the driest month (121 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 324 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 69 nights a year. The climate in La Bresse →
Next to La Bresse
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Bresse | 100% | 58% | 3.5 |
| Cornimont 3,027 · 6.2 km | 100% | 72% | 2.2 |
| Gérardmer 7,581 · 7.4 km | 100% | 70% | 6.3 |
| Saulxures-sur-Moselotte 2,566 · 10 km | 100% | 66% | 4.1 |
| Vagney 3,843 · 13 km | 100% | 59% | 1.9 |
| Le Thillot 3,167 · 17 km | 100% | 49% | 1.6 |
| Granges-Aumontzey 2,529 · 17 km | 90% | 70% | 1.1 |
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 La Bresse
Is La Bresse in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: La Bresse lies in Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in La Bresse?
OpenStreetMap maps 205 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 214 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of La Bresse is woodland?
58% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is La Bresse near the sea?
No: the coast is 450 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in La Bresse?
May 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.