Yep, Fashoda. 1898. Even more remote than the Balkans.
At that point, Germany still hadn't really gotten its fleet started, so it would have come in on England's side. Russia would of course join France, or try to weasel out of it when they saw how badly things stacked up. Austria would take the opportunity to try and grab more of the Balkans, but since England was still friendly with the Ottoman Empire Germany would likely yank Austria's chain a bit.
Actually, in OTL France backed down, I'd bet because it knew that it'd lose a war, so I don't think there's any chance that France would make war on England without a German alliance.
Which brings us to 1884-85, when Germany had promised to return Alsace-Lorraine to France in the event of their going to war against England together, and the League of the Three Empires was still alive, if barely. (Britain convinced Russia and Austria fairly quickly that they weren't good allies, and France soon figured out that German hegemony would be bad for it). Perhaps something in China or Africa could have sparked that conflict?