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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Ray Lambert is part of a dying generation of veterans who survived D-Day. Seventy-five years later, he wants to be remembered as someone who "was willing to die for my family and for my country."
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"The excuse we hear in France is that we have the French seduction type. ... It's in our culture and our tradition and blah, blah, blah," says a former member of Parliament.
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As the U.S. fights a trade war with China — Beijing, with its Belt and Road Initiative, is redoubling its attention on Europe.
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French President Macron is scheduled to give the state of the nation address on Thursday. It was postponed last week after the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral.
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Yellow Vest protestors plan their weekly demonstrations in the wake of the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral and calls for unity from the French president.
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Notre Dame caught fire Monday and was badly damaged. Officials are expressing hope that they can save a cathedral that's stood at the heart of France's capital for eight centuries.
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Global reliance on just a handful of crops for calories is hurting the environment — and wildlife, a new report says. It urges the world to diversify its diet to save plant and animal species alike.
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With recent incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism in France, a group of women from different religious and ethnic backgrounds sought greater understanding by learning about the horrors of the Holocaust.
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With his government rocked by ongoing yellow vest demonstrations, French President Emmanuel Macron launched a nationwide series of community conversations. But some wonder if anything will change.
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There has been a large turnout for hundreds of town hall debates across France, called by President Emmanuel Macron in an effort to diffuse social tensions amid the yellow vest protests.