Re: numbers instead of accented letters...

[Stefan Monnier]

>> If this works without complaint, check the "U" in the mode-line: is it
>> still there?
> Everything worked as you said and indeed the U is still there.

And if you now try `emacs -Q ~/.emacs.el` anew, you again see the \NNN
and the "=" in the modeline?

Does the file have file-local variables as in

    -*- ... -*-

on the first line or

    Local Variables:
    ...
    End:

on the last few lines?

> So, should I interpret that as Emacs is, for some reason, not using
> UTF-8 to read the file ?

Yes, the `=` means that Emacs decided that this file should be treated
as binary data rather than utf-8 text, basically.

Could you also try to search for a 0-byte?  E.g. with

    C-s C-q 0 C-s C-s

?


        Stefan