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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Greeks who want their country to continue using the euro held a rally in Athens Thursday. Many see it as a last-ditch attempt to pressure the government to reach an agreement with its lenders.
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French public schools discourage any display of religious identity. But after an Islamist terror attack this year, a religious co-existence group has found a huge demand for its services. -
European leaders are meeting in Brussels Friday to deal with the migrant crisis. At a squalid camp in northern France, migrants plot to stow away on trucks to cross the English Channel into Britain.
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He may have lost, but Napoleon still holds a fascination for thousands of re-enactors who came to Belgium this week to eat, sleep and wage mock war in the manner of the 1815 battle of Waterloo. -
A French court has cleared former International Monetary Fund director of pimping charges. Still, Strauss-Kahn's sexual appetites ended a career that was expected to lead to the French presidency.
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France has one of the world's highest dropout rates, and the reforms are meant to make the middle school curriculum more interesting. But critics say the changes amount to a "dumbing down." -
NPR Paris correspondent Eleanor Beardsley doesn't expect a ton of sympathy when she complains about unending holidays in France. But when you have a kid who's always off school, it's tough. Really. -
Not far from the film festival in Cannes is a town with even deeper ties to cinema. La Ciotat is home to the oldest working movie house in the world and was used by the inventors of moving pictures. -
The people of France are bemused and entertained by family squabbles at the top of the far-right National Front.
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The Marquis de Lafayette sailed from France to America in 1780 to help the new nation defeat the British. A $29 million replica of the Hermione tall ship is retracing that journey.
