Paris Moves To 2023

Attention passengers on the main timeline! Please update your histories of Worldcons that haven’t happened yet to reflect that Paris is now bidding for 2023.

The Paris in 2019 Worldcon bid page first appeared online last spring, followed by manifestations on Twitter and Facebook. Inquiries were answered by UK fan David Steere, who said the bid would launch at Loncon 3.

Then, just a few days ago, plans to move the bid to 2023 were mentioned on Facebook’s Eurosmof forum. Dave Langford asked for more details and was told by Jonathan Lewis-Jones, “Expect a press release shortly before Loncon3.”

The bid’s apparent British connection reminds me of those alternate histories set in Anglo-French empires, like Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy stories.

Now there is a Paris in 2023 Twitter account. European fans have been responding favorably. Crystal Huff wrote to me:

The Paris in 2023 bid has posted their first tweet, which many people replied to in French. I’m kinda proud of the fact that the Finns were the first to do so. https://twitter.com/Parisin2023/status/486633774877536257

Since 2009 there has been a Facebook club, Pour l’organisation dune WorldCon SF en France, and in April 2013, Bernard Henninger collected 33 names of fans willing to support a French Worldcon. Henninger wrote again last August that the idea created a stir at the 2013 Eurocon in the Ukraine – including a show of interest from Finnish fan Eemeli Aro.

Fandom may get more solid indications about who is leading the Paris bid at this year’s Worldcon, and how French fans are participating in it.

Meantime, the Dublin in 2019 committee must be pleased to see that, at least for the moment, their bid is uncontested.

3 thoughts on “Paris Moves To 2023

  1. Usually there’s a different reason I need to say, “Well, pardon my French!”

  2. You only have to say “Pardon my French” when, as J. Neil Schulman once put it, the merde’ hits the ventilateur.

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