Co Carlow/€1.2m: Why would you brave airports in your hunt for la vraie campagne when just down the road from Dublin is this 17th century farmhouse on 4.5 acres for €1.2m, asks Michael Parsons

Driving south through Co Carlow is not unlike cruising down an autoroute from Paris and being unaware of la France profonde on either side.

Okay, admittedly Serge does not shunt his camion at 120 km an hour, causing freshly quarried gravel to fall like brimstone and shatter Nicole and Papa's windscreen.

The perils of the N9, therefore, allow only the occasional glimpse of a foaming weir on the lordly Barrow or the purple grandeur of the Blackstairs.

And so, the little county - Leinster's pearl-drop earring - is quickly traversed. That's a pity, because within minutes of the main roads lies some of Ireland's loveliest and most unspoilt scenery with possibly the best-value property in the country.

Mill Park, Kilbride, Carlow, a 17th century farmhouse on 4.5 acres, with frontage onto the River Slaney (the county's other major river), is to be auctioned by Dawson Real Estate Alliance at Tullow on June 22nd and carries an advised minimum value of €1.2 million.

Folks, it's a steal.

The 232sq m (2,500sq ft) house has two reception rooms and a traditional kitchen. A diningroom, formerly the kitchen, retains turf-stained pine beams, an original bread oven and a nook where the goose once cared for its goslings.

There are three bedrooms on the first floor (two doubles and a single) and a bathroom which weekending Dortsiders might find a tad ancien régime.

On the second floor, two further bedrooms are suitable only for the vertically challenged due to won't-forget-that-in-a-hurry low door lintels.

Outside, the farm has long gone but 4.5 magical acres remain. There's a quarter-acre sheltered sloping lawn leading to a walled fruit and vegetable garden yielding organic treats from asparagus to Turkish brown figs.

A proper, old-fashioned chicken run (yes, children, the film was based on a true story) and a glasshouse of Black Hamburg grapevines. And a "rambling rector" rose - named, one hopes, to honour the reverend's sermons, and not his wandering eye.

A separate garden area features a large spring-fed pond - potentially a perfect natural swimming pool (en vogue) beneath a grove of Rhodesian Oak.

There is a profusion of granite outbuildings at least two of which - a 70-ft long re-roofed store and a former milking parlour - could be converted into quaint cottage residences without damaging the character of the main house.

There is a tennis court and then a large paddock leading to a secluded stretch of pristine riverbank where a canopy of beech and ash provide shade "o'er the pleasant Slaney".

Amid a carpet of bluebells, close to a little waterfall, a natural picnic spot created by a granite outcrop known as the Tea Rock overlooks a languid scene to rival a river valley in Dordogne.

Still determined to endure the unspeakable indignity of Dublin airport this summer and budget-airline misery to an out-of-the-way airstrip and your secret little gateway?

To what? La "vraie" campagne? Une fermette idéale? It's on the doorstep. Just 54 miles from the city centre.

As the old song says: Suivez-moi à Carlow.