This epic tale of 18th century India was a success, and her subsequent novels honed further her talents: an acute sense of intrigue, a sometimes dry and at other times flamboyant style, attempts at empathy with her characters, some humor, and an abundant imagination.

A great traveler, Irene attributes her predilection for Asia to her birth in Lorient, a historic port of the East India Company, formerly spelled L'Orient.

Several of her travel stories demonstrate this predilection: Quai des Indes (East India Dock) (1992) which recounts her investigation of the famous Indian bandit woman Phoolan Devi, La vallée des hommes perdus (The Valley of Lost Men) (1995) in collaboration with cartoonist André Juillard, Pour que refleurisse le monde (To flourish the world) (2002) with Jetsun Pema, the sister of the 14th Dalai Lama, and Au Royaume des femmes (The Kingdom of Women) (2006) and À la recherche du Royaume (In search of the Kingdom) (2007) with photos by François Frain which she wrote after travelling to China and Tibet in the footsteps of the famous American explorer Joseph Rock.

Her enthusiasm for the art of living is also noted in, for example, Le bonheur de faire l'amour dans sa cuisine et vice-versa (The joy of making love in the kitchen and vice versa) (2004).

She also reconstructed the immolation massacre that took place in 1730 at Khejarli near Jodhpur when 363 men, women and children gave their lives to protect the trees in a forest belonging to the Bishnoï peasant Amrita Devi.