PARIS—France mobilized thousands of police, armored personnel carriers, and water cannon trucks in Paris on Friday to keep out convoys of motorists converging on the capital for a protest against COVID-19 restrictions. Checkpoints were set up at toll points on major entry roads while riot-control barriers were erected across the city center ahead of rallies that the protesters aim to hold over the weekend. Inspired by “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations in Canada, the motorists—from numerous cities across France—were expected to gather outside Paris and seek to defy a police order not to enter the city. “We’ve been going around in circles for three years,” said pensioner Jean-Marie Azais, part of a “Convoie de Liberte” headed to the capital from the southwest, in reference to France’s anti-COVID-19 strategy. “We saw the Canadians and said to ourselves, ‘It’s awesome, what they’re doing.’ In eight days, boom, something was sparked.” As the evening rush …