json_bytes_repair.py

>>> import re
>>> invalid_escape = re.compile(r'\\([1-3][0-7]{2}|[1-7][0-7]?)')  # octal digits from 1 up to FF
>>> def replace_with_codepoint(match):
...     return chr(int(match.group(0)[1:], 8))
... 
>>> def repair(brokenjson):
...     return invalid_escape.sub(replace_with_codepoint, brokenjson)
... 
>>> sample = '{"destination":"Provence-Alpes-C\\303\\264te d\'Azur"}'
>>> repair(sample)
'{"destination":"Provence-Alpes-C\xc3\xb4te d\'Azur"}'
>>> json.loads(repair(sample))
{u'destination': u"Provence-Alpes-C\xf4te d'Azur"}
>>> print json.loads(repair(sample))['destination']
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur