Cómo insertar correctamente caracteres utf-8 en una tabla MySQL usando python

Probaste, esta consulta set names utf8;

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import MySQLdb

mystring = "Bientôt l'été"

myinsert = [{ "name": mystring.encode("utf-8").strip()[:65535], "id": 1 }]

con = MySQLdb.connect('localhost', 'abc', 'def', 'ghi');
cur = con.cursor()

cur.execute("set names utf8;")     # <--- add this line,

sql = "INSERT INTO 'MyTable' ( 'my_id', 'my_name' ) VALUES ( %(id)s, %(name)s ) ; "
cur.executemany( sql, myinsert )
con.commit()
if con: con.close()