Over its five-year history, Uber has faced resistance in almost every market it has entered. But it also has a pretty good record of eventually coming out on top. Not so in France, where Uber has made some of its fiercest enemies yet, with seemingly little hope for reconciliation on the horizon.

On Thursday, according to French media reports, cab drivers blocked access to Paris airports and erected barricades on major roads in protest of Uber, saying the company represents unfair competition for the taxi industry. Photos and videos showed cabbies burning tires and overturning cars. Cut off from transportation options, some people walked by the side of the road to reach the airport. Police in riot gear at one point intervened in scuffles between taxi drivers and other chauffeurs.

Amid the chaos, Reuters says the French government has sided with the taxi drivers. France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he asked police chiefs to implement a ban on UberPop, a cheaper version of the company's ride-hailing service equivalent to UberX in the US.

France has proven especially resistant to tactics that have worked well for Uber stateside.

In France, Uber has been operating in murky legal territory for some time. Last year, the government passed legislation that required all chauffeurs to have professional licenses and prevented app-based car services like Uber from using software to show the locations of their vehicles. A special law-enforcement brigade known as “Les Boers” patrols for UberPop drivers in violation of these rules, though the courts have yet to officially determine the validity of the law. In the meantime, Uber has reportedly encouraged its drivers to keep working. Today, according to Uber, after a three-year presence in France, the service has signed up a million users.

Uber, of course, is no stranger to threats and bans from regulators. The tale of how it manages to muscle its way into new markets is by now familiar: Uber barrels its way into a new city or country without regulatory approval and gets pushback, often in the form of a cease-and-desist demand or even outright bans. But Uber stays put, defying regulators, and with its deep pockets unleashes its formidable power in the form of publicity campaigns and lobbying. (According to a Businessweek report today, Uber has 250 lobbyists and 29 lobbying firms in US statehouses alone, a third more than Walmart.)

Don't Tread on Moi

But France has proven especially resistant to tactics that have worked well for Uber stateside. As The New York Times Magazine recently reported, the country's deeply ingrained tradition of shielding its workers, professions, and industries from allegedly unfair competition makes Silicon Valley-style disruption particularly unwelcome. Upending traditional institutions often isn't received with the same kind of kudos that techies in the US heap on their entrepreneurial heroes.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the French taxi industry is in an uproar about Uber. Taxi medallions are scarce and can run up to 200,000 euros (about $220,000) in the secondary market. This gives cabbies a strong incentive to keep the market to themselves. This latest altercation isn’t even the first major strike. Last year, a protest organized by French taxi drivers turned violent, with demonstrators attacking Ubers near Paris’ two main airports.

In other words, French resistance isn't new or surprising to Uber. But it does show the company hasn't figured out how to succeed in every market in which it hopes to entrench itself. If the company hopes to maintain its explosive growth around the world, it will have no choice but to take these issues of cultural difference seriously, or else the barricades put up today won't be the last.