"To France" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1984. It is from the album Discovery and features Maggie Reilly on vocals.

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 grounds
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?

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?

Never going to get to France.
Never going to...

Never going to get to France.
Never going to...

Never going to get to France.

RESTLESS= The opposite of calm.

WHITE WATER= Water which is moving fast: in the sea, because of a strong wind or the storm, in a river, because of the fast stream (due to lots of water or/and strong difference in levels) producing white foam.

THE ISLANDS= The British isles.

GET TO= Arrive in.

FRANCE= /frɑ:ns/ (AmE /fræns/)

MARY= /meərɪ/ Mary, Queen of  Scots, a the Scottish queen.

QUEEN OF CHANCE= She was deposed by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England, so she was not queen of anything any more. CHANCE (/tʃɑ:ns/ AmE /tʃæns/) means opportunity.

BIND= Attach (in this context, to cause to stay)

GROUNDS= In this context it means territory.

ROAMING= Going from place to place; wandering.

FAR OFF= Far away, distant.

STORIES UNFOLD= Stories expand; are known, are revealed.

SEARCHING= Looking for.

SANCTUARY= /sæŋtʃərɪ/ A place where you are safe, protected. In old times, a legal sanctuary was a place where the king's soldiers (the police) couldn’t enter, so if they were trying to arrest you, you were safe there. Sanctuaries were usually religious buildings, because some territories belonging to the Church had a separate jurisdiction.

FLICKER= To flicker is to move in a waving motion or with quick short changing motions, like the light of a candle. A flicker is an example of that kind of movement. In this case, they’re talking about an old lamp made of oil and a flame, so the flame is flickering and the flicker of the flame is caused by the flame.
Usually, Saxon genitive (‘s) is only used with people and time expressions to express possession, but sometimes we can see it used with other things too, especially in poetry.

FADE= Slowly disappear or lose intensity.

SHIMMER= To shine with a flickering light, like the reflection of the moon on the sea.

This song is believed to be about Mary, Queen of Scots. She was about a week old, when her father, James V of Scotland, died. So she was raised in France, because her mother was French. She married the French Dauphin (prince) and was queen of France for about 2 years. When her husband died she went back to Scotland, where she became Mary I, Queen of Scots, but many Scottish people didn't accept her so she had to flee (escape, go away). She tried to go back to France for protection, but the English (Queen Elizabeth I) imprisoned her. She was always hoping one day she would be released from prison, or liberated or she would be able to escape, but that never happened. After 18 years of imprisonment, she was finally beheaded, so she could never get back to France. Even her corpse never made it there, because she expressed her wish of being buried in France, but she was buried in London instead, and she is still there. And that was the sad life of Mary Stuart, the last queen of Scotland.