Yet a monarchy can also be democratic. Its impossible to say that the UK is not a democratic country. At the end of the day, the monarch in the UK is head of state only on the goodwill of the country. although they’re not elected every so many years, they are subject to continual judgement by the people and can lose their position if they exceed the behaviour which the people approve of.
France is a republic with an elected president as head of state. France retains much of the ceremony and tradition that the UK enjoys - see la Garde Republicaine for example, or the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.
French law is in general more prescriptive than British law. It descends from the Napoleonic Code, which was centrally devised and imposed in a short period of time, rather than being built up through decisions of difference judges in different courts over centuries as in England. French law has been drafted and imposed by the state: English law has been accumulated by the judiciary and accepted by the state. In France, you can generally do what the government has said you can do: in the UK you can generally do whatever you want as long as the government has not said you cannot do it.
France is a democratic republic sure enough but less so than the UK - see Freedom House’s Democracy Index rankings. France scores worse at 22nd, the UK 18th: France is classed as a “flawed democracy”.
In the global corruption index, the UK ranks 11th, France is worse, at 22nd.
In the economic freedom index, the UK is ranked 24th,France is worse, at 52nd.
In FH’s global press freedom index, the UK scores 21, France is worse at 24.
France scores way better than Russia of course.