[Python] French locale has \xa0 (space) as mon_thousands_sep, but throws error when reading in...

I'm using locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'fr_FR'). The thousands separator in French is a space -- when checking using locale.localeconv()['mon_thousands_sep'], the output is \xa0, which apparently stands for non-breaking space.

The problem arises when I start reading in French csv files: The numbers are indeed formatted using a space as a separator, i.e. 30 500,75 (For thirty thousand and five hundred and three quarters).

But trying to read that in using locale.atof breaks: It says it can't read that number in. I assume this is due to multiple space characters existing, but I can't exactly tell my users to make sure their space characters are exactly the one locale needs. Is there a way to get locale to be more flexible on what it considers a space?

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