diff --git a/.github/actions/waffles/requirements.txt b/.github/actions/waffles/requirements.txt
index de1263a9..b3d834f0 100644
--- a/.github/actions/waffles/requirements.txt
+++ b/.github/actions/waffles/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 docopt==0.6.2
 Flask==2.3.3
 markupsafe==2.1.3
-git+https://github.com/cds-snc/notifier-utils.git@52.0.7#egg=notifications-utils
\ No newline at end of file
+git+https://github.com/cds-snc/notifier-utils.git@52.0.8#egg=notifications-utils
diff --git a/notifications_utils/sanitise_text.py b/notifications_utils/sanitise_text.py
index 8c43cba1..b6a56cc2 100644
--- a/notifications_utils/sanitise_text.py
+++ b/notifications_utils/sanitise_text.py
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ class SanitiseSMS(SanitiseText):
 
     # Welsh characters not already included in GSM
     WELSH_NON_GSM_CHARACTERS = set("ÂâÊêÎîÔôÛûŴŵŶŷ")
+    FRENCH_NON_GSM_CHARACTESR = set("ÀÂËÎÏÔŒÙÛâçêëîïôœû")
 
     ALLOWED_CHARACTERS = (
         set(
@@ -108,6 +109,7 @@ class SanitiseSMS(SanitiseText):
             + "^{}\\[~]|€"  # character set extension
         )
         | WELSH_NON_GSM_CHARACTERS
+        | FRENCH_NON_GSM_CHARACTESR
     )
 
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index ede05b70..37d47a5b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ include = '(notifications_utils|tests)/.*\.pyi?$'
 
 [tool.poetry]
 name = "notifications-utils"
-version = "52.0.7"
+version = "52.0.8"
 description = "Shared python code for Notification - Provides logging utils etc."
 authors = ["Canadian Digital Service"]
 license = "MIT license"
diff --git a/tests/test_sanitise_text.py b/tests/test_sanitise_text.py
index d5b46bf3..e78959bf 100644
--- a/tests/test_sanitise_text.py
+++ b/tests/test_sanitise_text.py
@@ -3,12 +3,16 @@
 from notifications_utils.sanitise_text import SanitiseText, SanitiseSMS, SanitiseASCII
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("chars, cls", [("ÀÂËÎÏÔŒÙÛâçêëîïôœû", SanitiseSMS)])
+def test_encode_chars_sms_fr_not_downgraded(chars, cls):
+    for char in chars:
+        assert cls.encode_char(char) == char
+
+
 params, ids = zip(
     (("a", "a"), "ascii char (a)"),
     # ascii control char (not in GSM)
     (("\t", " "), "ascii control char not in gsm (tab)"),
-    # these are not in GSM charset so are downgraded
-    (("ç", "c"), "decomposed unicode char (C with cedilla)"),
     # these unicode chars should change to something completely different for compatibility
     (("–", "-"), "compatibility transform unicode char (EN DASH (U+2013)"),
     (("—", "-"), "compatibility transform unicode char (EM DASH (U+2014)"),