[Tex/LaTex] French accents in \hl from soul package

Question

I'd like to use the \hl command from the soul package in a French text. However, it does not work whenever the part to highlight contains French accents (e.g.: \hl{é}).

I could use \'e instead of é (\hl{\'e}) but it would be quite long to substitute all the accents just in case I will have to highlight them later (and there are several accents in French : é, è, ù, à, …).

Do you know whether it's possible to make \hl works with accents without substituing all the accents?

Here is an example file:

\documentclass[15pt , a4paper]{article}

\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8] {inputenc}
\usepackage{soul}
\usepackage{color}

\definecolor{y}{RGB}{245, 255, 189}
\sethlcolor{y}

\begin{document}
  \hl{\'e} % works
  %\hl{é} % doesn't work
\end{document}

Answer 1

For UTF-8 input, use soulutf8; don't forget fontenc!

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage{soulutf8}
\usepackage{color}

\definecolor{y}{RGB}{245, 255, 189}
\sethlcolor{y}

\begin{document}

\hl{\'e}
\hl{é}

\end{document}

There is no 15pt option for article.