diff --git a/bindings/python/notmuch.py b/bindings/python/notmuch.py
index 8d118595..3ff53ec8 100755
--- a/bindings/python/notmuch.py
+++ b/bindings/python/notmuch.py
@@ -17,7 +17,12 @@ import stat
 import email
 
 from notmuch import Database, Query, NotmuchError, STATUS
-from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
+try:
+    # python3.x
+    from configparser import SafeConfigParser
+except ImportError:
+    # python2.x
+    from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
 from cStringIO import StringIO
 
 PREFIX = re.compile('(\w+):(.*$)')
diff --git a/bindings/python/notmuch/database.py b/bindings/python/notmuch/database.py
index 7923f768..93183687 100644
--- a/bindings/python/notmuch/database.py
+++ b/bindings/python/notmuch/database.py
@@ -543,7 +543,13 @@ class Database(object):
         """ Reads a user's notmuch config and returns his db location
 
         Throws a NotmuchError if it cannot find it"""
-        from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
+        try:
+            # python3.x
+            from configparser import SafeConfigParser
+        except ImportError:
+            # python2.x
+            from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
+
         config = SafeConfigParser()
         conf_f = os.getenv('NOTMUCH_CONFIG',
                            os.path.expanduser('~/.notmuch-config'))