diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 44ea648fa..ede6b568d 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ install:
   - pip install pyyaml coveralls flake8 flake8-import-order doc8
   - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION != 2* ]]; then pip install sphinx; fi
   - pip install .
+  - sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/locale/*
 script:
   - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION != nightly ]]; then flake8 .; fi
   - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION != 2* ]]; then doc8 $(git ls-files '*.rst'); fi
diff --git a/tests/common.py b/tests/common.py
index b5ba4690b..96fc01819 100644
--- a/tests/common.py
+++ b/tests/common.py
@@ -57,7 +57,8 @@ def build_temp_workspace(files):
     tempdir = tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix='yamllint-tests-')
 
     for path, content in files.items():
-        path = os.path.join(tempdir, path)
+        path = path if isinstance(path, bytes) else path.encode()
+        path = os.path.join(tempdir.encode(), path)
         if not os.path.exists(os.path.dirname(path)):
             os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(path))
 
diff --git a/tests/test_cli.py b/tests/test_cli.py
index 90cf8c14a..62db777a7 100644
--- a/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -86,12 +86,26 @@ def setUpClass(cls):
             'no-yaml.json': '---\n'
                             'key: value\n',
             # non-ASCII chars
-            'non-ascii/éçäγλνπ¥/utf-8': (
-                u'---\n'
-                u'- hétérogénéité\n'
-                u'# 19.99 €\n'
-                u'- お早う御座います。\n'
-                u'# الأَبْجَدِيَّة العَرَبِيَّة\n').encode('utf-8'),
+            # The following bytes work even on systems where C-UTF-8 is not
+            # available. They are the representation of:
+            #  'non-ascii/éçäγλνπ¥/utf-8':
+            #      u'---\n'
+            #      u'- hétérogénéité\n'
+            #      u'# 19.99 €\n'
+            #      u'- お早う御座います。\n'
+            #      u'# الأَبْجَدِيَّة العَرَبِيَّة\n'
+            # b'non-ascii/\xc3\xa9\xc3\xa7\xc3\xa4\xce\xb3\xce\xbb\xce\xbd\xcf'
+            # b'\x80\xc2\xa5/utf-8': (
+            u'non-ascii/éçäγλνπ¥/utf-8'.encode('utf-8'): (
+                b'---\n'
+                b'- h\xc3\xa9t\xc3\xa9rog\xc3\xa9n\xc3\xa9it\xc3\xa9\n'
+                b'# 19.99 \xe2\x82\xac\n'
+                b'- \xe3\x81\x8a\xe6\x97\xa9\xe3\x81\x86\xe5\xbe\xa1\xe5\xba'
+                b'\xa7\xe3\x81\x84\xe3\x81\xbe\xe3\x81\x99\xe3\x80\x82\n'
+                b'# \xd8\xa7\xd9\x84\xd8\xa3\xd9\x8e\xd8\xa8\xd9\x92\xd8\xac'
+                b'\xd9\x8e\xd8\xaf\xd9\x90\xd9\x8a\xd9\x8e\xd9\x91\xd8\xa9 '
+                b'\xd8\xa7\xd9\x84\xd8\xb9\xd9\x8e\xd8\xb1\xd9\x8e\xd8\xa8\xd9'
+                b'\x90\xd9\x8a\xd9\x8e\xd9\x91\xd8\xa9\n'),
             # dos line endings yaml
             'dos.yml': '---\r\n'
                        'dos: true',