diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 44ea648..2f6b3ba 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -8,10 +8,14 @@ python:
   - 3.7
   - 3.8
   - nightly
+env:
+  - REMOVE_LOCALES=false
+  - REMOVE_LOCALES=true
 install:
   - pip install pyyaml coveralls flake8 flake8-import-order doc8
   - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION != 2* ]]; then pip install sphinx; fi
   - pip install .
+  - if [[ $REMOVE_LOCALES = "true" ]]; then sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/locale/*; fi
 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 b5ba469..50fd3df 100644
--- a/tests/common.py
+++ b/tests/common.py
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ def build_temp_workspace(files):
     tempdir = tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix='yamllint-tests-')
 
     for path, content in files.items():
-        path = os.path.join(tempdir, path)
+        path = os.path.join(tempdir, path).encode('utf-8')
         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 90cf8c1..9b7801d 100644
--- a/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -56,6 +56,16 @@ class RunContext(object):
         return self._raises_ctx.exception.code
 
 
+# Check system's UTF-8 availability
+def utf8_available():
+    try:
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'C.UTF-8')
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, (None, None))
+        return True
+    except locale.Error:
+        return False
+
+
 class CommandLineTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     @classmethod
     def setUpClass(cls):
@@ -86,7 +96,7 @@ class CommandLineTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
             'no-yaml.json': '---\n'
                             'key: value\n',
             # non-ASCII chars
-            'non-ascii/éçäγλνπ¥/utf-8': (
+            u'non-ascii/éçäγλνπ¥/utf-8': (
                 u'---\n'
                 u'- hétérogénéité\n'
                 u'# 19.99 €\n'
@@ -110,6 +120,8 @@ class CommandLineTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
         shutil.rmtree(cls.wd)
 
+    @unittest.skipIf(not utf8_available() and sys.version_info < (3, 7),
+                     'UTF-8 paths not supported')
     def test_find_files_recursively(self):
         conf = config.YamlLintConfig('extends: default')
         self.assertEqual(
@@ -425,17 +437,12 @@ class CommandLineTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
             cli.run(('-f', 'parsable', path))
         self.assertEqual((ctx.returncode, ctx.stdout, ctx.stderr), (0, '', ''))
 
+    @unittest.skipIf(not utf8_available(), 'C.UTF-8 not available')
     def test_run_non_ascii_file(self):
-        path = os.path.join(self.wd, 'non-ascii', 'éçäγλνπ¥', 'utf-8')
-
-        # Make sure the default localization conditions on this "system"
-        # support UTF-8 encoding.
-        try:
-            locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, (None, 'UTF-8'))
-        except locale.Error:
-            self.skipTest('no UTF-8 locale available')
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'C.UTF-8')
         self.addCleanup(locale.setlocale, locale.LC_ALL, (None, None))
 
+        path = os.path.join(self.wd, 'non-ascii', 'éçäγλνπ¥', 'utf-8')
         with RunContext(self) as ctx:
             cli.run(('-f', 'parsable', path))
         self.assertEqual((ctx.returncode, ctx.stdout, ctx.stderr), (0, '', ''))