#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use feature qw{ say };

my $string = 'jean-fran\xe7ois chr\xe9tien';
$string =~ s/\\x(..)/chr hex $1/ge;
binmode STDOUT, 'encoding(UTF-8)';
say $string;
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Also note that telling anyone their name is "ridiculous" might sound inpolite.

Update: Simplified using binmode.

($q=q:Sq=~/;[c](.)(.)/;chr(-||-|5+lengthSq)`"S|oS2"`map{chr |+ord
}map{substrSq`S_+|`|}3E|-|`7**2-3:)=~y+S|`+$1,++print+eval$q,q,a,
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