🌊 The French cities farthest from the sea

The French city farthest from the sea is Colmar, 480 km from the nearest coast as the crow flies, ahead of Erstein (480 km) and Sélestat (479 km).

What are the 10 French cities farthest from the sea?
In order: Colmar, Erstein, Sélestat, Illkirch-Graffenstaden, Riquewihr, Strasbourg, Ostwald, Lingolsheim, Schiltigheim and Bischheim.
What is the top 5 of French cities farthest from the sea?
Colmar (480 km), Erstein (480 km), Sélestat (479 km), Illkirch-Graffenstaden (475 km) and Riquewihr (474 km).
Which city is 2nd in the ranking of French cities farthest from the sea?
Erstein, at 480 km, just behind Colmar (480 km).
Is Colmar really the French city farthest from the sea?
Yes, at 480 km, ahead of Erstein (480 km) and Sélestat (479 km).
In which département is Colmar?
Colmar is in département 68, in the Grand Est region.
Which city is 10th in the ranking of French cities farthest from the sea?
Bischheim, at 469 km.
How many French cities does this ranking compare?
1,052, with the top 100 listed in full in the table below.
What are the French cities farthest from the sea in 2026?
This ranking uses the most recent official figures published as of 2026: Colmar leads with 480 km.
Is there a complete ranking of French cities farthest from the sea?
Yes, the table below: the top 100 of 1,052, each with its département and its region, and the exact method and scope stated underneath it.
Which is the most landlocked city in France?
Colmar, at 480 km from the nearest coast. The common answer of Dijon is wrong: eastern France, around Alsace and the Vosges, is markedly farther inland.
How far is France's farthest point from the sea?
No city in this dataset is more than about 480 km from a coast, which is what makes France unusual: nowhere in the Hexagon is truly far from the sea.
Which sea or ocean counts as the nearest coast?
Whichever is closest: the Channel, the Atlantic or the Mediterranean, measured against metropolitan coastlines including Corsica. Overseas cities have no value here rather than a made-up one.

The table below ranks the top 100 of the 1,052 cities in the dataset, each with its département, its region and the figure it is ranked on (distance to the sea), so you can see not just the order but how far apart the places are. The numbers are official public data: INSEE legal populations and the IGN commune registry, with the exact method and the exact scope stated under the table rather than left to be guessed at.

The same data answers neighbouring questions too: see The highest cities in France and The northernmost cities in France, or all rankings for the full list. All of it comes from Hexagone, a free daily game that gives you five French cities and one of these statistics and asks you for the order.

Top 100 of 1,052 cities
#CityRegionTo the seaPopulation
168ColmarGrand Est480 km66,970
267ErsteinGrand Est480 km10,790
367SélestatGrand Est479 km19,589
467Illkirch-GraffenstadenGrand Est475 km27,872
568RiquewihrGrand Est474 km999
667StrasbourgGrand Est473 km293,771
767OstwaldGrand Est472 km13,946
867LingolsheimGrand Est470 km20,826
967SchiltigheimGrand Est469 km34,708
1067BischheimGrand Est469 km18,558
1167HœnheimGrand Est468 km11,742
1267BischwillerGrand Est466 km12,242
1367ObernaiGrand Est465 km12,587
1467BrumathGrand Est460 km10,499
1567HaguenauGrand Est458 km36,391
1668GuebwillerGrand Est458 km11,243
1788GérardmerGrand Est456 km7,581
1888Saint-Dié-des-VosgesGrand Est447 km19,251
1968WittenheimGrand Est447 km15,553
2068CernayGrand Est446 km12,057
2168WittelsheimGrand Est446 km10,645
2268KingersheimGrand Est445 km13,354
2368IllzachGrand Est443 km14,923
2468PfastattGrand Est442 km10,314
2568MulhouseGrand Est441 km104,978
2668RixheimGrand Est440 km14,380
2770VesoulBourgogne-Franche-Comté439 km15,078
2868RiedisheimGrand Est439 km12,200
2967SaverneGrand Est436 km11,460
3090BelfortBourgogne-Franche-Comté431 km45,912
3188ÉpinalGrand Est427 km32,251
3268Saint-Louis (68)Grand Est423 km22,805
3370HéricourtBourgogne-Franche-Comté423 km10,621
3457SarrebourgGrand Est419 km12,170
3525MontbéliardBourgogne-Franche-Comté418 km24,672
3621Chevigny-Saint-SauveurBourgogne-Franche-Comté416 km11,108
3725AudincourtBourgogne-Franche-Comté413 km14,071
3825ValentigneyBourgogne-Franche-Comté412 km10,501
3921ChenôveBourgogne-Franche-Comté410 km14,244
4021DijonBourgogne-Franche-Comté408 km161,830
4121TalantBourgogne-Franche-Comté406 km11,896
4225BesançonBourgogne-Franche-Comté402 km118,489
4354LunévilleGrand Est400 km18,262
4439DoleBourgogne-Franche-Comté395 km23,840
4557SarregueminesGrand Est395 km20,143
4621BeauneBourgogne-Franche-Comté388 km20,352
4757Stiring-WendelGrand Est380 km10,956
4857ForbachGrand Est378 km20,493
4954Vandœuvre-lès-NancyGrand Est376 km29,942
5054NancyGrand Est375 km103,671
5157Freyming-MerlebachGrand Est375 km13,266
5254Villers-lès-NancyGrand Est374 km14,718
5371AutunBourgogne-Franche-Comté374 km13,172
5454LaxouGrand Est372 km14,771
5557Saint-AvoldGrand Est371 km14,755
5654MaxévilleGrand Est371 km10,090
5757CreutzwaldGrand Est364 km12,254
5871Chalon-sur-SaôneBourgogne-Franche-Comté362 km45,102
5971Le CreusotBourgogne-Franche-Comté360 km20,509
6025PontarlierBourgogne-Franche-Comté358 km18,067
6154ToulGrand Est358 km15,768
6288Domrémy-la-PucelleGrand Est357 km102
6339Lons-le-SaunierBourgogne-Franche-Comté354 km16,618
6452ChaumontGrand Est352 km20,827
6554Pont-à-MoussonGrand Est349 km14,190
6671Montceau-les-MinesBourgogne-Franche-Comté345 km17,064
6757Marly (57)Grand Est344 km10,286
6857MetzGrand Est343 km122,572
6957Montigny-lès-MetzGrand Est342 km21,718
7058NeversBourgogne-Franche-Comté340 km33,085
7103MoulinsAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes337 km19,206
7203YzeureAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes337 km12,897
7389VézelayBourgogne-Franche-Comté337 km476
7457WoippyGrand Est336 km14,967
7557Maizières-lès-MetzGrand Est333 km11,580
7657AmnévilleGrand Est328 km10,875
7752Colombey les Deux ÉglisesGrand Est328 km661
7857YutzGrand Est325 km17,391
7957FameckGrand Est324 km14,788
8057FlorangeGrand Est323 km12,035
8157ThionvilleGrand Est321 km42,658
8271ClunyBourgogne-Franche-Comté320 km4,942
8357HayangeGrand Est319 km15,806
8471MâconBourgogne-Franche-Comté311 km35,177
8501OyonnaxAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes310 km22,480
8689ChablisBourgogne-Franche-Comté308 km2,139
8755Bar-le-DucGrand Est307 km14,607
8801Divonne-les-BainsAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes307 km10,464
8901Bourg-en-BresseAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes306 km42,372
9001GexAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes306 km13,627
9154VilleruptGrand Est302 km10,102
9252Saint-DizierGrand Est301 km22,858
9389AuxerreBourgogne-Franche-Comté300 km35,097
9474Thonon-les-BainsAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes298 km37,928
9501Saint-Genis-PouillyAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes297 km14,432
9655VerdunGrand Est295 km16,890
9701Ferney-VoltaireAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes295 km12,094
9801ValserhôneAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes292 km16,712
9903VichyAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes289 km25,115
10054LongwyGrand Est289 km15,679

Scope: France, metropolitan and overseas, Corsica and the DROM included. This dataset holds every commune of 10,000 inhabitants or more, plus smaller communes famous enough to be household names, 1,131 in all. It is not the full list of 35,000 French communes, so a village can sit outside a ranking whose extreme it would otherwise hold. This particular ranking is metropolitan only: the distance to the coast is measured against the coastlines of the Hexagon and Corsica, which would put an overseas port thousands of kilometres from a sea it sits on, so no value is published for overseas France rather than a wrong one.

Method and sources: populations are the INSEE legal populations, boundaries and coordinates come from the IGN commune registry, both served by geo.api.gouv.fr. Density is the population divided by the commune's area; distances are measured as the crow flies from the commune's centre. Data read on August 11, 2026.

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FAQ

Which French city is farthest from the sea?

The French city farthest from the sea is Colmar, 480 km from the nearest coast as the crow flies, ahead of Erstein (480 km) and Sélestat (479 km).

What are the top 10?

In order: Colmar (480 km), Erstein (480 km), Sélestat (479 km), Illkirch-Graffenstaden (475 km), Riquewihr (474 km), Strasbourg (473 km), Ostwald (472 km), Lingolsheim (470 km), Schiltigheim (469 km), Bischheim (469 km).

Isn't Dijon the usual answer?

Dijon is the answer people repeat, and it is not the one the coordinates give. Measured as the crow flies to the nearest coastline, the most landlocked cities in France are in Alsace, penned in between the Vosges and the Rhine: Dijon is genuinely far from the sea, but roughly a hundred kilometres less far than the Alsatian plain.

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