After the national mourning, the pomp, the ceremony and the pages of analysis in our newspapers, we've settled back into our rural rhythm.

Fatalistic at the best of times, the French, as now after the Hebdo and Jewish deli slayings, have refined the Gallic shrug into a single gesture of helpless acceptance.

Friends in the UK ask me what the mood is like now, what the locals are saying and I have to answer: Normal. Nothing.

Twice recently, with two separate groups of French acquaintances, I raised the events in Paris, hoping for a wider discussion to discern their views.

In both cases only one person spoke while the others simply nodded and quickly moved on to another subject.

Simple words: "We are at war."

Roslyn used exactly the same phrase when I asked her thoughts on her weekly cleaning visit.

So it was no surprise, on reading a major survey undertaken to gauge the mood of the French nation following the terrorist attacks to see that 53 per cent currently believe that France is at war.

And 84 per cent of those think it's a war with jihadist terrorism, with two thirds believing it's a war that can be won.

Now surveys can be widely misleading but this, undertaken by Le Monde newspaper and Europe1 radio, covers such a broad spectrum of public opinion that its findings should be taken as fairly sound.

Published under the heading: "What does a 'post Charlie' France look like?" the results show a surprisingly tolerant and measured society.

But it also shows a nation ready to adopt whatever tough new laws are suggested and one willing to forego individual privacy to prevent further terrorism acts.

Those surveyed were asked their opinion of five measures to deal with religious extremism. The majority was in favour of all five.

With France's notoriously overcrowded, under resourced prisons the nursery of jihadist radicalisation, 95 per cent support tougher conditions for detainees who actively promote extremist views in jail.

Ninety per cent were in favour of stripping French people of their nationality if they travelled to Syria to wage jihad.

And an astonishing 71 per cent and 67 per cent respectively agreed that it would be right to listen in to suspects' phone calls and search their homes without permission from officials.

Sixty one percent believe it also should be possible to interrogate suspects without a lawyer being present.

Although France promotes itself as the cradle of the rights of man, it is actually a country where freedom of speech and even religion operate under a controlled system of laws and checks.

The powers of the civil service and the various police forces are already far beyond what would be acceptable in the UK.

So perhaps I shouldn't really find it so astonishing that the bulk of the people would willingly hand over further power.

In many ways the French play with their anarchist leanings while seeking the comfort and security of the state.

However, that aside, there is hope if the rest of the survey truly conveys French feeling.

Only 51 per cent say that "Islam is not compatible with the values of French society."

It is an 'only' because last year 63 per cent felt that, and the year before, 74 per cent.

Many were impressed and convinced by the outspokenness of Muslim representatives who immediately condemned the attacks as not being done in the name of Islam.

France has Europe's largest Muslim population who must surely find comfort in that. For they too tremble under the jihadists' backlash.

It also has Europe's largest Jewish population although increasingly many fear for their safety and have fled or talk of fleeing.

France would not be France without the Jews, says Hollande, in a public plea for them to stay.

But when Jewish children pass the heavily armed police now constantly guarding their schools, who would blame them?

Some 7,000 French Jews moved to Israel last year, the largest number from any country. Israeli settlement agencies are already preparing a plan for the arrival of 120,000 over the next four years.

Seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz it was chilling to hear French Jews on national television tell how they are targeted in public because of their kippah (skullcap.)

How their shops, their synagogues, their burial places are daubed and desecrated.

No wonder that this time some of them do not wish to hang around trusting that their nationality plus essential human decency will keep them safe.

All the evidence of minority groups worldwide proves otherwise. Sometimes hope is not enough.

There is probably little consolation either in knowing that alongside Catholicism, their religion is considered most compatible with French values.

But then, since the separation of religion and state, it actually isn't, of course.

At least, according to the survey, the loathsome Marine Le Pen of the Front National, scored an own goal by not taking part in the unity walks after the killings.

She held her own and turned it into a political rally. Sixty nine percent of the French found that distasteful and even her own supporters were unimpressed.

That alone convinces me there is hope still.