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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 appointment of the conservative has already angered left-wing lawmakers, who say Barnier won't get a majority backing in the National Assembly.
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Some 15 million people are expected to attend the Olympic games in Paris, which are now in their second week. Keeping them safe is a top priority, so the French government has brought in soldiers.
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Paris displaced thousands of people living in encampments on the edge of Paris to make way for the games.
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Swimmer Léon Marchand has dazzled at the Paris Olympics so far, winning gold and winning over a country who loves to support him.
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The Paris Olympic opening ceremony delivered an amazing spectacle. Thousands of athletes floated down the Seine as more than 400,000 people lined the banks to take it all in.
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Authorities are searching for the arsonists who set fire to high-speed train infrastructure in France, stranding tens of thousands at the start of the Paris Olympics.
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High-speed rail traffic to Paris was disrupted by what officials described as “criminal actions” and sabotage.
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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 celebrates 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.”