I have this function to dump a file into a variable.

    ' FileToStr() VFP equivalent
    ' expC1 File name
    Public Shared Function FileToStr(ByVal tcFileName As String) As String
        Dim loFile As IO.StreamReader
        Dim lcString As String
        lError = False
        cError = ""
        Try
            loFile = New IO.StreamReader(tcFileName)
            lcString = loFile.ReadToEnd()
            loFile.Close()
        Catch loError As Exception
            cError = loError.Message
            lError = True
            lcString = ""
        End Try
        Return lcString
    End Function

But, I am loosing my French characters. What should I modify in this function to preserve them?