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 French government has fallen in a no-confidence vote, and the prime minister is resigning. President Emmanuel Macron has cut short a trip to Saudi Arabia to return and address the nation.
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France's government has been toppled by a no-confidence vote in parliament, for the first time sine 1962. Prime Minister Michel Barnier served the shortest time in the post in France's modern history.
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The French government faces the no-confidence vote over the prime minister's austerity budget. He's been in office less than three months.
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French Prime Minister Michel Barnier made a last-ditch attempt to rally support for his government. Far left and far right members of parliament are preparing to bring it down in a no confidence vote.
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European nations are bracing for new tariffs and less security support from the incoming Trump administration.
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On Friday, people in France had a glimpse inside Notre Dame Cathedral for the first time since the fire nearly six years ago.
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Notre Dame Cathedral has been closed to the public since a fire damaged the landmark in April 2019.
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Some six years after a devastating fire, work is nearing completion at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Almost every part of the cathedral has undergone restoration and rebuilding.
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Members of the European Union Are Preparing With Caution and, At Times, Keenness for the Second Trump Presidency.
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The victim at the center of a mass rape trial in France gave her closing statement in a French court. She denounced French society as macho and patriarchal, called it a society that trivializes rape.