France’s evolving engagement in the South Caucasus traces a path from neutral mediation to overt alignment. Once a co-chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, France now positions itself as Armenia’s leading Western supporter following the Second Karabakh War in 2020. This article begins by assessing France’s role in the Minsk Group framework and how its collapse reconfigured the region’s diplomatic architecture. It then situates France’s posture within broader historical patterns, from 19th-century rivalry with the British and Russian Empires to its involvement in the Armenian Question and protectorate diplomacy. Finally, it examines France’s post- 2020 militarization of its Armenian partnership, including arms transfers, defence agreements, and a departure from mediation toward open alignment. The analysis considers the strategic and normative stakes of this shift: France’s pursuit of ostensible moral leadership, the risks of alienating Türkiye and Azerbaijan, tensions with EU and NATO partners, and the limits of its capacity to serve as a guarantor. France’s wager in the South Caucasus reveals the friction between its diplomatic tradition and its emerging role as a security actor on a contested frontier.