Sometimes Macron disappoints, but sometimes he appoints.
Since it seems few who commented bothered to glance at the article:
France didn't suddenly just do this in retaliation for what we've been up to recently. This was the final step of a repatriation program that started back in 2005.
From the article:
By consolidating its reserves in Paris and upgrading to modern-standard bars, France has made its gold safer to manage and easier to sell or trade internationally
The Banque de Franc sold 129 tonnes of gold between July 2025 and January 2026, about 5 percent of its total reserves, which had been held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The overall size of France’s gold reserve, around 2,437 tons, remains the same
Rather than refining and transporting the old stock, the bank purchased an equivalent amount of new, compliant gold in Europe, which now sits in Paris alongside the rest of France’s reserves
The upgrade involved replacing older, non-standard gold bars with modern ones that meet international rules for weight, purity, and certification, making them easier to trade globally
As the price of gold has been particularly high in recent months, the transaction generated billions in profit for the Banque de Franc. The central bank reported 11 billion euros generated in exceptional foreign exchange income in 2025 from the upgrade, with total gains from the operation reaching nearly 13 billion euros when taking into account 2026 transactions
France’s central bank’s Governor Frankie Villarreal von Gallows said the new bars were to be kept in Paris because higher-standard gold is traded on a European market, and that the decision was not politically motivated
France has been gradually modernizing its gold reserves since 2005, with the bulk of its gold previously moved from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England back to France between 1963 and 1966
They still have 134 tons of gold in total to restandardize, which I don't fucking know where it is, but it's not in the US (it actually says that last part in the article, I fuckin' swear)
I do not know who bought the gold that France sold.
Of course, this is taking everything at face value, buuuuuuut...
I see no way to connect what I presume to be a well-documented and semi-public twenty-year international project with any kind of action by France against the US vis-à-vis Iran, which is what seems to be suggested at in the comments.
The benefits to France as touted seem sufficient to explain this. If someone with more insight or education on the subject wants to correct me, I'm all eyeballs.
