Eleanor Beardsley

Eleanor Beardsley is the Paris correspondent for National Public Radio where she covers all aspects of French society, politics, economics, culture and gastronomy. She is also a core part of NPR's breaking news team in Europe and beyond, recently covering the conflict in Israel, the earthquake in Morocco, and the war in Ukraine. Beardsley began reporting from Ukraine in 2014 as the conflict started. She was on the ground in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded.

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 regularly returned to the North African country to follow its progress.

Beardsley has been a part of NPR's coverage of the events that have shaped the European continent over the last decade. From terrorist attacks to the migrant crisis, where she followed the arrival of Syrian refugees to Hungary, Austria, Germany, Sweden and France.

She has covered four French presidential elections, including the surprising win by outsider Emmanuel Macron in 2017, and the implosion of the country's two traditional mainstream parties. Less than two years later, Macron's presidency would be severely tested by France's Yellow vest movement, which Beardsley followed closely.

In France, 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, she closely covered the Women's World Soccer Cup held in France in June 2019 and regularly follows the Tour de France cycling race.

After two decades, listeners have come to rely on Beardsley's insightful reporting about France. She has even been a question associated with France on Jeopardy.

Prior to moving to Paris in 2004 to begin her career as a radio journalist, Beardsley worked for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo and as a television news producer for French broadcaster TF1 in Washington, D.C. She also worked in the US Congress, notably as a staff assistant to South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond.

Beardsley says reporting from France 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 in French, 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 said. "Sometimes it's fun to dispel the false notions and show a different side of the Gallic character. And sometimes the old stereotypes hold up. But whether Americans love or hate France and the French, they're always interested!"

Born in South Carolina, Beardsley has a Bachelor of Arts in European History and French and an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities 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.