Bullshit. People obeyed the first lockdown when everything was chaotic but since then it's been pretty hit and miss. People in the metro with no masks/mask under the nose, flouting of curfews, etc. If i had to guesstimate, around 20-30% of people didn't respect the social distancing and related measures.

Source: live in Paris

As an outsider looking at France's news about vaccination rates and hesitancy, it certainly doesn't look like your fellow citizens trust public health officials. Although, I've never really had the impression that French people trusted authority. Quite the opposite.

But regardless, South Korea acted way quicker than any western democracy to test and trace.