town

Village Called 'Champagne' Fights For Its Name

Filed under: Wine

A small town in Switzerland is fighting to be able to do something most town's take for granted: put its name on its wine bottles. Despite the fact that the village has been in existence for over 1000 years, and has been producing wine since at least as far back as The Middle Ages, there's a ban in place keeping the town name of 'Champagne' from appearing on its wine and food labels. A deal struck back in 2004 between the European Union and Switzerland (in order to protect the French wine-producing region of the same name) is to blame, and as a result the poor town of 713 residents has been experiencing steady drops in sales and may even lose jobs in the future. The residents are fighting it, but so far to no avail. Poor Champagne.

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Tags: ban, champagne, expire-images2009-4-6, france, french, swiss, switzerland, town, village, wine

Town Sells on eBay for $3.8 Million

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

You really can get everything on eBay, even your own "Unpopulated 1 House Texas Town."

Gee, I've always wanted one of those.

Albert is not the first town to get sold on eBay, but it's the latest. Just north of San Antonio, Texas, it consists of 13 acres that houses a tavern, a dance hall, a tractor shed, a 3 bedroom house, and a couple peach and pecan orchards. There's no post office and no permanent residents, but it sold for $3.8 million dollars to a bidder from Italy -- which was well over the reserve price which was set at only $2.5 million.

Do you suppose the winner bought it as some kind of over-the-top Christmas gift for somebody? That would be so fun!

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Tags: Albert, auction, eBay, Texas, town