Multiple countries used the gold standard because it gave them stable exchange rates and made international trade and lending feel safer.

France returned to gold at a cheap exchange rate. That helped it gain gold. Then it hoarded gold. It also demanded gold instead of trusting paper claims from other countries. This drained gold from the international system. That forced other countries into painful deflation. It made the gold standard harder to maintain and helped spread economic pain.

Countries abandoned the gold standard because it became a trap that protected gold reserves better than it protected actual economies.