problem in java import

hi all !!
i did an application that makes me able to import Excel sheets into MySQL data base from Java and it works !! but the problem that my database has some French letters like "é,è,à and ç" so it doesn't recognize them instead its replaced by a small cube or interrogation in the middle of the word i changed my var-char type to UTF8 and General Ci for all my fields and the problem still existing so if anyone have the solution or an idea i will be thankful !! :)

parse the excel file, remove those characters or replace them using regular expressions

no sir my database is in French so it must be perfect and containing like these characters even i have some queries test including words having "é" for example and it works and my data is full of them only i don't know why in the import process can't read them