>>> l = [ u ' Le choix dans la date ' , ' Les nouilles cuisent au jus de canne ' ] >>> map ( str . strip , l ) Traceback ( most recent call last ) : File "<ipython-input-14-41df8a735feb>" , line 1 , in < module > map ( str . strip , l ) TypeError : descriptor 'strip' requires a 'str' object but received a 'unicode' >>> map ( unicode . strip , l ) Traceback ( most recent call last ) : File "<ipython-input-15-fc0fc8fef32d>" , line 1 , in < module > map ( unicode . strip , l ) TypeError : descriptor 'strip' requires a 'unicode' object but received a 'str' >>> [ x. strip ( ) for x in l ] [ u 'Le choix dans la date' , 'Les nouilles cuisent au jus de canne' ]