There are no chain stores -- no McDonald's, no Home Depot, not a Burger King in sight. There are no stoplights, only two flashing reds in a couple of sleepy clapboard towns. There is no interstate highway slicing through the winding mountain roads. And there are no cell phone towers looming over the countryside.

There is fresh mozzarella, though, and Italian pasta, gourmet coffee, pomegranates, Asian pears and other such exotic grocery fare. There are some tasty little restaurants, plus one superlative one, and a surprising number of cute stores. And there is great antiquing at any number of quaint furniture and knickknack shops.

Above all, of course, there is the Blue Ridge, that scenic stretch of mountains that makes western Virginia one of the prettiest and most tranquil parts of the state.

Rappahannock County, home of one of Virginia's prime entrances to the Shenandoah National Park at Thornton Gap, has to be the most bucolic -- and at the same time the hippest -- destination within 90 minutes of Washington. And beyond the beach and the bay, the Blue Ridge is the third major venue for Washington area residents looking to buy a second home.

Well-known names, such as New York Philharmonic conductor Lorin Maazel, former senator and presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy and local television weatherman Bob Ryan, as well as numerous other Washingtonians, have all owned both primary residences and vacation homes in Rappahannock County. The county measures 265 square miles and has a population of fewer than 7,000 full-time residents.

Agriculture, mainly cattle, orchards and vineyards, is the main engine of the county's economy, with tourism a close second. Year-round residents include the descendants of the original farmers there, migrants from cities nearby, and a group of artists, musicians and writers who began moving to the area in the 1960s.

Although dozens of Rappahannock County residents still hold a grudge against the state and federal governments for forcing their ancestors off their land to make way for Shenandoah National Park in the 1930s, there is little tension now between original residents and out-of-town second-home buyers, county officials and residents said. Both groups are united in their fierce opposition to growth and development.

The real estate market in Rappahannock County has been vibrant over the past three years of escalating housing markets, agents and county officials said, with generally more buyers than suitable available properties to sell. Prices have increased the same way they have in other second-home markets around the country.

"Sale prices are up, average land prices are up, and the amount of sales are also up," Rappahannock County Administrator John McCarthy said. McCarthy, one of two county administrative employees -- the other is his secretary -- works out of a tidy little red-frame house in the center of the small town of Washington, Va., the county seat. Visitors who want to speak to him sit on one of two wooden benches on the porch, waiting for him to call them in. The wait is never long.

The Inn at Little Washington, the expensive boutique hotel and restaurant opened almost 30 years ago in the center of town, attracts a group of well-heeled visitors to Washington, Va., nicknamed by some Little Washington to distinguish it from Washington, D.C., about 70 miles to the east. Dinner at the world-renowned restaurant costs about $100 a person, not including wine; rooms at the inn start at more than $300 a night.

County records show that 40 properties changed hands in October, twice as many as two years ago. Land values have risen to more than $8,000 an acre from about $5,000 an acre in the past three years. And property prices have risen 40 percent to 45 percent over that same time.

This past summer and into fall, the number of properties for sale has risen a bit; there have been more properties on the market in the county over the past few months than there has been for several years, agents said.

Economists point out that the second-home market is the most vulnerable segment of the overall housing market in a slowing economy.

A second home is a discretionary, big-ticket item. Buyers are driven by completely different motivations when buying a second home than they are in buying their primary residence.

"That is a cause for concern given the situation in the country now, both economically and politically," said Kevin Roth, senior economist at the National Association of Realtors. "A second home doesn't represent shelter. It's a vacation home, a weekend home, so some concern is legitimate."

Roth said, however, that the huge number of U.S. baby boomers, who are in their peak income years and have both discretionary income and savings, should keep the national second-home market from tanking.

He said it was too early to tell what the weak economy means for the second-home market now. Since second-home sales tend to be seasonal (the beach's peak season is the summer; Rappahannock County has more of a spring and fall peak), the total effect may not be seen for about a year.

Roth said, too, that the tense situation in the Washington area since Sept. 11 and the ensuing anthrax crisis could push residents to buy a country place to get away from the city.

"I think that the secondary-home market in this area will be protected," Roth said. "As long as people have the means to do so and the economic certainty, recent events could actually propel them to buy that second home now."

It is too early for official figures to show whether there has been any real increase in interest since Sept. 11, but several agents said traffic is definitely up in the months since the attacks.

"We've had two walk-ins just this afternoon," Mitzie Young, an agent with Real Estate III in Washington, Va., said last week. "One couple was looking for a house and land up to a million dollars and the other buyer wanted a piece of land to build on. More people are out looking for property since September 11."

"More people seem to be interested in getting a place in the country now," said Eileen Day of Eileen Day Realtors in Sperryville, one of the county's half dozen little towns. "People who have had it in their mind to do this might have been pushed a bit by recent events."

Grant Griffith, an agent at Pardoe Real Estate in the District, held an open house three weeks ago on a 58-acre property in Rappahannock County that was designed and built by author and retired television anchorman David Brinkley. Brinkley sold the house about 10 years ago. Still called the "Brinkley house," and with a Brinkley Lane address, the property, which includes a fish-stocked pond and a charming three-bedroom, three-bath wood house, is on the market for $638,000.

"We had more than 100 people come through the house," said Griffith, who also owns a weekend home in Rappahannock County. "That's a phenomenal turnout." There is no contract on the house yet, though.

Tourism has picked up recently, as measured by an increase in sales tax revenue, compared with the same period in prior years, county officials said. The increase is probably a combination of good fall weather and the fact that more people seem to be taking short weekend road trips, they said.

"A lot of people seem afraid to fly now," McCarthy said. "So there's been more weekend retreats. People have been driving out to have lunch, do a little antiquing, then going home with a few mementos they've picked up. It's been good for our local economy."

Even if there is an increase in interest, many properties on the market in Rappahannock County have been for sale for quite a while. It is not unheard of for a property there to be on the market for two to three years.

"People's motivations for selling a second home are not nearly as strong as if they're selling their primary home," Griffith said. "Rappahannock sellers don't care that much if they sell their properties quickly. It's not like they have to move. They'll sit and wait for as long as it takes to get their price."

Most buyers of property in Rappahannock County want a charming, older farmhouse or a log cabin with lots of acreage, views of the Blue Ridge and either a pond or a stream running through the land, agents said. Those kinds of properties are few, however. The overwhelming majority of buyers in Rappahannock County are Washington area residents seeking a second home, county officials and agents said.

There are 57 properties now on the market in the county, ranging from a $87,000 two-bedroom, one-bath rambler on a third of an acre to a sprawling unrenovated pre-Civil War plantation house on 400 acres, which is selling for $3.2 million. An $18 million winery was for sale recently, but that has been taken off the market. Several properties are priced just shy of $1 million.

On a dazzling afternoon last week, Frank Belloni and his wife, Debra Chilton, were looking for an old farmhouse on 50 acres to 100 acres.

The couple live on a 40-acre lot on Lake Anna in an old house they renovated themselves. They want to move to Rappahannock County because a large subdivision is going up adjacent to their land. "We're hoping that if we move here, we can get away from all that building," Belloni said.

Agent Rick Kohler, managing broker at Real Estate III in Washington, Va., the only incorporated town in the county, showed the couple a farm on 17 acres for $349,000. The farm included an older unrenovated house, a large barn and two other smaller houses.

"What people like about this county is its natural beauty and the fact that it's quiet and unspoiled," Kohler said.

One major draw of the county for buyers looking for a peaceful, country life -- like the Belloni-Chilton household -- is the strict zoning that dictates that only one single-family house can be built on every 25 acres.

There are several hundred properties smaller than 25 acres throughout the county, but those lots were divided before the zoning rules were put into effect in 1986.

The regulations have kept building in the county to a minimum over the past 15 years. From 65 to 70 building permits for new homes are issued every year, county records showed.

"We don't want development," McCarthy said. "Our zoning is reflective of the fact that the last thing we want is unrestricted growth. We're not anxious to become anybody's bedroom community. In fact, we don't want to change at all."

McCarthy said shops and services have increased the desirability of the county recently for both day-trippers and second-home buyers. Several new shops have opened in the area even over the past year, he said. "We've had some creative retailers come to the county," he said.

Two of those retailers are John Oravec and Terri Lehman, who this past Memorial Day opened the Epicurious Cow, a grocery and short-order restaurant at the intersection of Richmond Road and Route 211, the main thoroughfare cutting through the county.

Lehman worked as a merchandiser for Sutton Place Gourmet and Oravec was once the sous-chef at the restaurant Cashion's Eat Place in Adams-Morgan. Their sophisticated culinary roots are evident in their new shop, which sells anything from Italian anchovies to Asian mangoes. Rockfish wraps and homemade bread are on the lunch menu. Lehman and Oravec have moved to Rappahannock County from the Washington area.

The striking views of the Blue Ridge, the fresh mountain air, the eclectic shopping and the county's proximity to Washington attracted them and other Washingtonians, such as D.C. developer Jim Abdo. He is building his "dream house" on a 67-acre Rappahannock County lot he bought recently. Abdo first renovated a run-down guest cottage on the land, where he and his fiancee stay on the weekends while the main house is being built.

"Rappahannock County is without question one of the most beautiful places on the East Coast," Abdo said. "And it's only an hour and fifteen minutes from my apartment in Dupont" Circle.

"I don't have to get on a plane to get here, go through security, pack all my stuff," he said. "I just hop in the car on a Friday afternoon and before I know it, I'm here recharging my batteries. It adds so much to my life."