Barbara - I would be inclined to support your view of any of this kind of thing because you are there and your general common sense. Let's not get too carried away, however. Of course there are laws that could be enforced against blocking a road. The gendarmerie would of course remove a blockade of a highly traveled road put up by a some group or gang with some individual grievance. What happened yesterday was a substantial political protest and it was handled politically by all concerned, including the Prefet. The protesters were part of a politically sophisticated and well organized group who were not thought (with good reason) to present any threat of violence or any threat of blocking emergency vehicles (although they were willingly taking the risk that some kind of tragedy might occur). I personally doubt that yesterday will have an adverse effect on tourism, but if it becomes a common mode of political expression on both sides, it will have an adverse effect on tourism - on a macro level, probably more of a threat to Dutch side than French.