Marguerite Bouniol did not hesitate for a moment when she was asked several weeks ago whether the family of Sophie Toscan du Plantier would participate in a vigil for 126 women murdered in Ireland over the past 10 years.
"I thought it would be good for us to remind people of Sophie's tragedy," said Ms Bouniol, the murdered French woman's mother.
"Every time there is an opportunity to talk about her, I want to do so."
Just organising the journey was complicated. The Bouniols are growing old and are no longer able to rent and drive a car.
Ms Bouniol suffers from heart disease. Stiff limbs make it painful for her to move in the morning, so she, her husband Georges and sister Marie- Madeleine Opalka took the precaution of arranging flights two nights ahead of the vigil. A relative suggested the Bouniols create an association with other families of women murdered in Ireland.
"We'll ask them," Ms Bouniol said. "We're not accusing the police or the judiciary system, but it will be better to have others with us. If there are more of us, the Irish Government may listen."
Ms Bouniol will ask her sister to speak on her behalf at the vigil. "I found the figure of 126 murdered women very high," she says.
"I want Marie-Madeleine to say that their families are also victims. We are still alive; you never get over losing a daughter like that. We are the victims."
When Ms Toscan du Plantier was murdered, her parents consulted leading French lawyers, who warned them that unlike the situation in France, they would have no access to the Garda file under Irish law. Ms Bouniol hopes that her experience could change that.
"It doesn't seem right that we can know nothing about the investigation," she said. "We know only what we read in newspapers. The judge is constrained by the law; the family have no rights."
In their way, the Bouniols attempted to influence Irish jurisprudence by filing a civil suit against an individual, the procedure for suing an alleged murderer in France .
But they could ill afford the legal fees, and their case fell apart when a key witness retracted testimony many years after their daughter's murder.
Ms Bouniol revealed that six months after their daughter's murder, their French lawyer asked to see a member of the Irish Government, who subsequently met them in their hotel in Cork .
"He said they were carrying out a very thorough investigation and he hoped they would be able to arrest the murderer," she said.
"He mentioned no name. He said, 'Don't worry, we'll get there.' We believed him."
Ms Bouniol said the family lost hope when the Director of Public Prosecutions detained and then released a suspect for the second time.
They are tormented by the idea there might be a clue in the file that only they would understand. "We read in the paper that there were two glasses in the sink [ the night of the murder]," she said.
"We know that Sophie left the washing up until her departure. They said there were two chairs facing each other; we know she always pulled up a chair to read with her feet up.
"She used to open the door for neighbours at night. From the kitchen window, you couldn't see who was at the door . . . "
As a teenager, Sophie Bouniol spent two summers studying English in Ireland.
"When she came back, she said, 'Some day I'll buy a house in Ireland'," her mother recalls. "Yes, it's painful to go there, but the wounds are open anyway."
Ms Bouniol has few illusions about the ability of families of murder victims to influence Irish legislation. "It may be a dream," she say, "but I tell myself that we'll have tried to do something for Sophie. That's really why we're going."