They had gold worth X to the market but X minus 11 billion on paper. So when France accounted for its gold in euro terms they would say they have X minus 11 billion Euros worth of gold.

Now they still have the same amount of gold but they "realized" a gain of 11 billion. They don't have that much cash left after the repurchase but now they say they have X Euros worth of gold which is 11 billion more than before.

So no they didn't make a profit from this as gold is higher on both sides of the Atlantic than last time they did their accounting updates.

> worth X to the market but X minus 11 billion on paper.

Why was it worth “X minus 11 billions”?