I don’t think Switzerland is ready to break with it’s neutrality, but there is a bit of a tiff brewing with France. Its all happening in a village of 713 inhabitants in the canton of Vaud, called Champagne. You can see where this is going.

Although technically they have been ordered to stop using Champagne on its wine since 1974, when the World Trade Organization ordered the village to stop using " vin du Champagne ", the whole thing might have continued as is, if it hadn’t recently bubbled up, sparked by baked goods.

Paris v. village bakery

The villagers of Champagne, Switzerland, are reacting to a case passing through the European courts just now: Paris is challenging the right of the local bakery, i.e. located in Champagne, to sell biscuits labeled "Champagne recipe". The bakery was established in 1934 by the grandfather of the current owner, and village mayor, Marc-Andre Cornu.

So what’s with the wine? Well, in 1999, in exchange for Swissair's air rights in the EU, the Swiss government acquiesced to the French Champagne wine-makers' request that the Swiss Champagne village no longer use its own name on its wine, and the village had until 2004 to phase out the use of its name. The village's winemakers filed suit with the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, but were rejected in August 2007. It has since re-labeled the wine as "Libre-Champ."

Using the bakery as a focal point seems a fine opportunity take up the cause again. As to the cause, according to Thomas Bindschedler, spokesman of a committee to fight France's challenge, "It's not a question of money but a question of identity." Well, that may be, but the fact that wine sales tumbled from 110,000 bottles in 2000 to just 32,000 today, and that the bakery estimates a loss in sales of 500,000 euros because if re-labeling, might have some influence.