To France

Song written and recorded by Mike Oldfield.

Mike Oldfield version

Mike Oldfield recorded ‘To France’ for his 1984 album ‘Discovery’. It features Maggie Reilly on vocals. Released as the album’s lead single, it reached number 48 in the UK singles chart, but was a top 10 hit all over Europe.

Kim Wilde version

Kim Wilde recorded a cover of ‘To France’ for her 2011 album Snapshots.

Versions

There are three versions of ‘To France’: the album version, the ‘mixed but not mastered’ version from the promotional cd of ‘Snapshots’ and the Christmas edit.

Formats

‘To France’ was released as a single. It was available as a digital download only.
See this page in the discography for more information.

Live performances

‘To France’ was performed live during the Snapshots & Greatest Hits Tour in 2012 and the Dutch tours in October 2015 and October 2016.

Kim about ‘To France’

In 1984, Mike Oldfield released ‘To France’ with Maggie Reilly. She’s such a great vocalist, but I was already a huge fan of Mike Oldfield because we used to play his records at home, particularly ‘Tubular bells’ of course, everyone loves that album as they should, and ‘Ommadawn’ and I remember my dad bringing this album home, putting it on the record player and just all of us absolutely loving it, except my mum who hated the bagpipes. But I was always a huge fan of Mike Oldfield and this song has the most incredible melody. I think when people ask me ‘how did you choose the songs for the album’ I think one of the answers would have to be that I focus very much on how strong the melody was, try to separate that from a great record. A great record is very different to a great song. And that was an interesting thing that I discovered when I was choosing songs for ‘Snapshots’. (1)

Credits

Bass guitar: Ricky Wilde
Guitars: Neil Jones & Ricky Wilde
Keyboards: Andrew Murray & Ricky Wilde
Additional vocals: Kim Wilde, Ricky Wilde & Scarlett Wilde
Produced by Ricky Wilde & Andrew Murray
Vocal production by Ricky Wilde
Additional engineering by Pascal Magdinier

Interview source

(1) Track by track commentary, Sony Music, 2011.


Lyrics

Taking on water,
Sailing a restless sea
From a memory,
A fantasy.
The wind carries
Into white water,
Far from the islands.

Don’t you know you’re never going to get to France.
Mary, Queen of Chance, will they find you?
Never going to get to France.
Could a new romance ever bind you?

Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you’re
Searching for sanctuary.

You know you’re never going to get to France.
Mary, Queen of Chance, will they find you?
Never going to get to France.
Could a new romance ever bind you?

I see a picture
By the lamp’s flicker.
Isn’t it strange how
Dreams fade and shimmer?

Never going to get to France.
Mary, Queen of Chance, will they find you?
Never going to get to France.
Could a new romance ever bind you?