\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[latin9]{inputenc} % or latin1 if problems occur
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} %more characters available
\usepackage{textcomp} % provides the euro symbol
\begin{document}
This is a test of accented characters: éàùòóíì; and of french quotes «», as well as ½(oe), and æ (ae), and ¤ (EUR). Note that ½ and ¤ will not appear with latin1.
\end{document}
