diff --git a/gramps/gui/widgets/grampletbar.py b/gramps/gui/widgets/grampletbar.py
index 62c7d7b8c..6ec6f8e78 100644
--- a/gramps/gui/widgets/grampletbar.py
+++ b/gramps/gui/widgets/grampletbar.py
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ class GrampletBar(Gtk.Notebook):
         if filename and os.path.exists(filename):
             cp = configparser.ConfigParser()
             try:
-                cp.read(filename)
+                cp.read(filename, encoding='utf-8')
             except:
                 pass
             for sec in cp.sections():