Original subtitles

(SINGING IN FRENCH)

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

What did he say?

He says you're good and strong.

He said you were strong, anyway.

(LAUGHING)

I know it's already September and winter'll soon be here,

but it's good to stop and have some fun.

We deserve it.

Think of all those times we passed near a town or a village

and we dared not enter.

Think how greatly you wished to be safe, among friends once more.

Safe?

But you saw the Tripods going to the city.

You hear them all the time, even here.

It's going to be hard, really hard, the last part.

BEANPOLE: We shall do it.

In winter.

Look, I know why you both like it here.

I don't blame you.

It's just that...

Don't blame us for Eloise, Will.

HENRY: You said yourself, the winter's coming

and the last part's going to be the toughest.

We've a good way to climb yet before we reach the White Mountains.

Oh, madame.

I have something to show you. Come with me.

Oh, we were making up stories...

Come.

MADAME VICHOT: I have travelled.

Before I was your age, I had seen six countries.

I started to make a collection,

to remind me of other times, other places.

I've never seen such things.

I'm grateful to a father who taught me my jackdaw ways,

because it means I've been able to show my children some of the wonders

I was fortunate enough to see.

Some things, unfortunately, I've not been able to show.

From that strange box and those black plates,

there came music once.

(ALL EXCLAIMING)

But not everything survived our long journeys.

That's amazing.

Why do you show us all this?

And how? If you've been...

Look, I... I think we should make ourselves comfortable.

How and why?

You know, I often wonder.

You see, I'm some kind of vagrant...

Huh?

...whose capping finally contented me with life in this quiet heart of France,

a gentle husband and our six daughters.

But it never completely quenched my instinct for learning or my curiosity.

And you may use this room whenever you wish.

Thank you.

Merci, madame.

But I have a question now.

Jean-Paul here is French, but he's many kilometres from home.

And you, Henry and Will,

now, what reason would you have for crossing a sea

and a foreign land to invade our vineyard?

Oh, I've been honest with you.

You know why.

Well, you must have heard us in our room.

We're trying to get to the White Mountains, Madam Vichot.

If by that you mean what we call the Alps,

for they are indeed white mountains,

do you not know that they cover a great distance?

That they stretch across four countries?

France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. Did you not know that?

No.

Do you perhaps mean le Mont Blanc?

Le Mont Blanc?

"The white mountain"!

MADAME VICHOT: Mmm-hmm.

And it is... It's here.

Of course, I remember now!

It was what Ozymandias had said to me, the White Mountain.

(SINGING IN FRENCH)

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

It's like running 20 kilometres.

When your journey is over and done, whatever it is,

would you not come back?

We all hoped you'd stay for the winter.

It's a hard time. Extra hands would be welcome.

And we'd be together.

Kirsty, would you believe I've never been so happy?

What is so important that it takes you away, then?

Kirsty.

Mother told us to ask no questions.

When shall you go?

Kirsty, if you didn't want...

I mean...

If you really don't want to be apart from me,

and I don't want to leave you, but...

Perhaps if Beanpole and Will agree, do you...

You've seen how we are, Henry.

I love my home, and I'm needed here.

(GONG RINGING)

I'm hungry.

(ALL CHATTERING)

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

What does he want?

Answers.

What's he going to ask?

How should I know?

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

Oh, for some inscrutable reason, Daniel finds it unbelievable

that you don't travel weighed down by a hundredweight of official forms.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

(BIDDING FAREWELL IN FRENCH)

Well, I expect you understood most of that.

I didn't.

Oh, we have no licence to travel, no licence to stay.

And you and I should be registered as foreign visitors.

Daniel can't imagine how your legs'll function without the papers.

We should go. We don't want to cause any trouble for you.

Oh, Daniel's no trouble, Will.

He'd half expect unexplained young travellers to turn up at the vineyard

of a foreign eccentric like myself.

But Daniel has superiors.

He's bringing more forms for us to sign the day after tomorrow.

But tomorrow we finish the grape-picking,

and nothing's going to spoil that, eh?

We've got to leave.

I can't explain, Helen. We must leave.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

You can change your mind, you know.

You wish to make a grand journey before you're capped.

I understand.

My mother tells us it was so with her.

But when your plan is achieved,

you will return to us on your way home, yes?

I know it will be so.

We have little time now.

Oui.

Then let us lose none.

Don't you like me, Will?

Of course I do. I like you all.

I wish you would not go away when the grapes are picked.

Do you think I'm pretty, Will?

Prettier than any other girl in France?

(MADAME VICHOT SPEAKING FRENCH)

(SHELAGH SOBBING)

Are you perhaps homesick or missing somebody?

I'm famous in this family for keeping secrets.

A girl I, uh, met.

What would her name be?

Eloise.

What happened?

Eloise had a family, too, a good family and home.

They wanted me to stay.

What happened?

She was taken to serve the Tripods.

-In their city? -Yes.

I know, it's the greatest honour,

and I'm not capped so I don't understand.

Very well.

If you've been in love, you'll know that love can hurt, yes?

So how do you think my poor Shelagh feels, huh?

Have you no eyes in your head? She dotes on you, man.

I know, and I'm sorry.

I just can't help it.

It's not undying love they're asking.

It's just a little consideration and kindness.

But because you've been hurt, you throw it all back in their faces.

Now, is this how your Eloise would have wanted you to behave?

No.

Will, you remember the works of art I showed you in the attic?

We talk of loving, but there are two loves,

the love for one person and the love for mankind.

Without the one, the other is nothing.

The one is private and tender,

but the other links us to the world itself.

All of those wonders were made with love.

Love should build up, not destroy.

With love and courage, mankind is capable of anything.

Madame Vichot, you... You told us you were capped.

Well, so I am.

I've already told you that I am perhaps some kind of vagrant

whose capping never wholly succeeded.

Sometimes I dream, Will.

I dream of that time before the Tripods,

when men and women were masters of their fate.

And then there are regrets.

I come and I look at my treasures.

Oh, that mankind could have made such things.

But we live in the real world,

and the real world is a world of capping and acceptance.

My girls will be capped. Jeannie is already.

They will lose their sense of wonder.

But there will be gains.

Peace of mind.

Do not underestimate the gift of peace of mind, Will.

I shall never have that entirely.

(ACCORDION PLAYING)

(ALL CHEERING)

(SIGHING)

(ALL CHATTING)

Helen's made a cake.

(ALL CHEERING)

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

-Beanpole can mend anything. -He's a genius!

So's Helen.

(LAUGHING)

-Monsieur Henry Parker. -Merci.

-Monsieur Will Parker. -Merci.

-Et Monsieur Jean-Paul Deliet. -Merci.

All men must take their separate ways.

And though these partings grieve us,

the memory of your friendship stays,

and this will never leave us.

We wish you joy, we wish you health,

pray in your hearts receive us.

Good fellowship is more than wealth,

and that will never leave us.

Hey, that looks really good, really warm.

It is, yeah.

Hey, look.

Someone's given me new boots.

Me, too!

And this.

It's the route to Mont Blanc.

Come on.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

Au revoir, Will.

Thank you.

-Good-bye, Will. -Thank you.

Safe journey.

-Take care. -You, too.

Thank you for your help.

Thank you for everything.

I hope you find what you're looking for.

I think you should go now. My husband will set you on your way.

Good luck. Safe travelling.

Remember us.