@@ -421,11 +421,11 @@ def get_ext_modules(options):
         # > Unknown Extension options: 'cython_directives' warnings.warn(msg)
         cython_directives={
             # Any conversion to unicode must be explicit using .decode().
+            "language_level": 2,  # Yes, Py2 for all python versions.
             "c_string_type": "bytes",
             "c_string_encoding": "utf-8",
             "profile": ENABLE_PROFILING,
             "linetrace": ENABLE_LINE_TRACING,
-            "language_level": "2",
         },
 
         language="c++",