UP COUNTRY

Want to make like Shrek and take a hike with your own donkey? The Fédération Nationale Anes et Randonnées (FNAR) can direct you to a farm in France where you can rent an ass, although not one with the wiseacre mouth of Eddie Murphy. FNAR has more than 60 member stables that, at varying rates, rent donkeys to hikers; some even provide a guide, whereas at others your guide is a map and, if you're a slow walker, the stars. Some of the farms have short-term camps for children to learn to care for donkeys, and several organize nature walks. The members are listed at bourricot.com, or call FNAR at 33-4-92-65-09-07.

Donkey enthusiasts are represented in almost every part of France, from Calais to Corsica, but most are centered near the Pyrenees or along the Rhône in the départements of Haute-Loire, Ardèche, Drôme, Vaucluse, and Gard—scenic regions best experienced on foot.

We began our visit at La Flânerie, where Nicole and Jean Louis Guyot breed Pyrenean donkeys on the grounds of this charming eighteenth-century farmhouse, an idyllic property across from a medieval church. Nicole, who is fluent in English, prepares the meals using the harvest of her garden and the meats, cheeses, and wines from her neighbors (33-5-62-31-90-56; doubles, $49; prix fixe, $16; donkeys, $51 per day and $310 per week).

After our first full day's walk, we arrived at the Manoir Souquet, a farmhouse that Daniel Souquet began restoring 19 years ago. Dinner and a dip in his pool or hot tub take out the soreness (33-5-62-96-34-12; doubles, $54; prix fixe, $15).

The next day brought us to the picturesque village of Maubourguet, a French Brigadoon, where Carole Dauba accepts overnight guests and their four-legged transport at her Ferme Palay, which has a swimming pool (33-5-62-96-38-78, fax -02-24; doubles, $33). We dined at her parents' cafe, L'Autobus, across from Les Halles, the market square, where we enjoyed many glasses of floc. A Gascon specialty, floc is a wine to which Armagnac has been added to stop the fermentation and increase the alcohol content (33-5-62-96-38-78; prix fixe, $11).