In Python 2.4b2 and Python 2.3.4:

a_grave = u'\u00e0'

for x in [u'en','dans',a_grave,u'pendant','au cours de']:
    print "\tx = %-15s" %(x.encode('utf-8'),) + "p(x) = ..."

gives the following output on two UTF-8 terminals (Mac OS X 10.3 and Linux/Gnome 2.8):

        x = en             p(x) = ...
        x = dans           p(x) = ...
        x = à             p(x) = ...
        x = pendant        p(x) = ...
        x = au cours de    p(x) = ...


where the number of spaces following the unicode character a_grave = u'\u00e0' is too small by one.