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Eleanor Beardsley
Eleanor Beardsley began reporting from France for NPR in 2004 as a freelance journalist, following all aspects of French society, politics, economics, culture and gastronomy. Since then, she has steadily worked her way to becoming an integral part of the NPR Europe reporting team.
Beardsley has been an active part of NPR's coverage of terrorist attacks in Paris and in Brussels. She has also followed the migrant crisis, traveling to meet and report on arriving refugees in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Sweden and France. She has also traveled to Ukraine, including the flashpoint eastern city of Donetsk, to report on the war there, and to Athens, to follow the Greek debt crisis.
In 2011, Beardsley covered the first Arab Spring revolution in Tunisia, where she witnessed the overthrow of the autocratic President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Since then she has returned to the North African country many times.
In France, Beardsley has covered three presidential elections, including the surprising win by outsider Emmanuel Macron in 2017. Less than two years later, Macron's presidency was severely tested by France's Yellow vest movement, which Beardsley followed closely.
Beardsley especially enjoys historical topics and has covered several anniversaries of the Normandy D-day invasion as well as the centennial of World War I.
In sports, Beardsley closely covered the Women's World Soccer Cup held in France in June 2019 (and won by Team USA!) and regularly follows the Tour de France cycling race.
Prior to moving to Paris, Beardsley worked for three years with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. She also worked as a television news producer for French broadcaster TF1 in Washington, D.C., and as a staff assistant to South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond.
Reporting from France for Beardsley is the fulfillment of a lifelong passion for the French language and culture. At the age of 10 she began learning French by reading the Asterix the Gaul comic book series with her father.
While she came to the field of radio journalism relatively late in her career, Beardsley says her varied background, studies and travels prepared her for the job. "I love reporting on the French because there are so many stereotypes about them in America," she says. "Sometimes it's fun to dispel the false notions and show a different side of the Gallic character. And sometimes the old stereotypes do hold up. But whether Americans love or hate France and the French, they're always interested!"
A native of South Carolina, Beardsley has a Bachelor of Arts in European history and French from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and a master's degree in International Business from the University of South Carolina.
Beardsley is interested in politics, travel and observing foreign cultures. Her favorite cities are Paris and Istanbul.
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The Olympic games begin Friday. For the first time in the modern era, the opening ceremony won't be in a stadium. The Games will kick off with a parade through Paris in boats along the river Seine.
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A new cookbook seeks to celebrate Marseille, France's second-largest city.
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After Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the river, she said the Olympics were "a kind of magnet that attracted all our energies towards a single date, July 26, and we did it.”
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After the first round of France's election, behind-the-scenes horse trading is taking place. Marine Le Pen’s far-right party may soon control parliament. Its opponents say they would fight back.
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The president called surprise legislative elections, in two rounds on Sunday and July 7, and they're shaping up to be among the country's most divisive in recent history.
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Reenactors and world leaders converge this week for World War II commemorations in Normandy, where Ukraine looms large.
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Far right parties in Europe are poised to do well in European parliament elections in early June. The populist refrain of leaving the EU has been replaced by talk of transforming the bloc from within.
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France has officially welcomed the Olympic flame in a ceremony in the southern port city of Marseille. The event featured fighter jets and fireworks, and some 200,000 spectators.
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French lawmakers passed a bill to enshrine the right to an abortion in the constitution, a historic move prompted by concerns over the rollback of abortion laws in the U.S.
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Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had vetoed the aid package in December but joined other EU members in approving it at a summit in Brussels. His vote came with conditions the EU did not disclose.