(YahooTravel) - Right now there’s a major love affair going on between France and America. The French President just pinned the legion d'honneur, France’s highest honor, on three young Americans who acted to stop a terrorist act on a train bound for Paris. So, in honor of all this, it’s a great time to head for France, one of the most beautiful countries on earth. Specifically, head for Bordeaux, which with 350,000 souls, has everything on a human scale: food, art, history, location, and, of course, wine. 

What’s more, the dollar is up, the euro is down, and you will find a big welcome. And in the coming weeks the harvest will begin and there’s no better time to visit. Bien sur. 

So have a glass of wine and check out these 10 reasons to go to Bordeaux right now.

1. It’s Clean

Now I know that cleanliness does not rate high on the list of great reasons to go to France. Non non non! You go for food, wine, for charm, for the je ne sais quoi. But in Bordeaux, the locals keep telling you about this clean thing, about how their fine city was, not so long ago, obscured by centuries of grime, soot, and pollution. About a decade back, the clean-up began. Now the city shimmers. Alongside the wide Garonne River, it sparkles, it glows. On a recent visit, under pristine blue skies, I strolled around town, looking at the houses, the monuments, the extraordinary theater in the main square.

The 18th century buildings, reflected in pools and fountains all over town, were the exquisite models for Paris. Baron Haussmann who, in the early 19th century made the Paris we know from a still medieval city, was a Bordeaux prefect. The Bordelaise take enormous pride in the new shine on their town, and so they are passionate about it and very welcoming. You can walk everywhere or take the trams that purr like contented cats all through the town, which was built on a very human scale.

2. Du Vin: the Wine

Once upon a time, Bordeaux was almost synonymous with wine. It is still among the biggest and most famous of all the old-world wine regions, and when new wine drinkers like the Chinese go shopping for the really great stuff, they buy Bordeaux’s Grand Crus — Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Margaux, and a few others found mainly in the Medoc region just outside the city. And if you have a hankering to taste this very very pricey if delicious stuff, you can do it. The big chateaux open their doors, and there are plenty of wine tours that last a day or more (every hotel in town will get you signed up). None of the hundreds of vineyards is more than a couple of hours out of town.