Accents

Hi: I'm doing a song and typing up French lyrics. I need to place accents on some of the e's and a's, but I can't find this in the Symbols of the maste palette, or anywhere else. Is there a way to add the French accents to lyrics? On another issue, Shift-F2 does not bring up the Special Characters selection grid. Isn't there another way to bring up the Special Characters box? (I was thinking the French accents might be in there).