class _timelex(object):

    def __init__(self, instream):
        self.wordchars = (
            """abcdfeghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_ßàáâãäåæçèéêëìíîïðñòóôõöøùúûüýþÿÀÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÐÑÒÓÔÕÖØÙÚÛÜÝÞ"""
            )
self.numchars = '0123456789'
self.whitespace = ' \t\r\n'
How to use python_dateutil 1.5 'parse' function to work with unicode?