Planned Train Line Through French Flower Fields Could Threaten Chanel No. 5 Perfume

Chanel is making a big stink about a planned train line that the company believes poses a threat to the future of Chanel’s signature No. 5 perfume.

The country’s SNCF rail network wants to build a new high-speed route and viaduct to ease traffic congestion between the cities of Le Muy and Cannes, the Associated Press reports.

But the new line would cut across southern France’s perfume-making area, Grasse, and that could seriously muck up Chanel’s production of its most popular scents, including No. 5, the company said in statement on Friday.

“The construction of a viaduct and the regular passage of high-speed trains above the flower fields would force Chanel to stop supporting its artisanal activities in the region,” the statement read.

But SNCF said that because the area is also home to three of the country’s biggest cities, the region simply “cannot afford to remain isolated in an increasingly interconnected European area.”

Chanel is now throwing its weight behind a campaign to make Grasse’s perfume-making area on UNESCO’s protected heritage list. It’s also lobbying French authorities to support another route for the train.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist