diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/dviread.py b/lib/matplotlib/dviread.py
index f738fb591d3e..f8c353e179a8 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/dviread.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/dviread.py
@@ -1021,7 +1021,14 @@ def find_tex_file(filename, format=None):
     pipe = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
     result = pipe.communicate()[0].rstrip()
     _log.debug('find_tex_file result: %s', result)
-    return result.decode('ascii')
+
+    # workaround for when a tex file has a country
+    # specfic character in its path name
+    try:
+        res = result.decode('ascii')
+    except UnicodeDecodeError:
+        res = result.decode('utf-8')
+    return res
 
 
 @lru_cache()