But the sorrow still wells up unpredictably, both for the 129 victims and for an art of life epitomised like nowhere else I can think of by the city of Paris.

Even in the best imaginable scenario, the tolerant, non-judgmental joie de vivre exuded by this special place, where the squares are back-gardens, the cafés breakfast-rooms, stands to be tempered for an indeterminate period by furtiveness, doubt, fear.

I adore Paris; having lived there in two spells for six years I know it better than most English cities. My daughter was born there.

I have spent enough time in the dreary suburbs of what used to be known as the ceinture rouge, or red belt, to comprehend something of the frustrations of those who exist there, in the shadow of such luxury and beauty.

Nevertheless, it would be unspeakably sad if this unique, fragile urban ambiance, as rare as any natural habitat, were lost, crushed under a wave of overbearing, if well-intentioned, state surveillance, prejudice and mutual distrust.

I am no longer sure in such circumstances if the additional, entirely self-imposed, stresses and strains of an Olympic bid/project are what Paris now needs.

People will say that the event which cities are currently bidding for is almost a decade away, and that sport can be a positive force giving marginal elements an incentive to reintegrate with mainstream society.

Both of those points are true. But it is also true that unless every detail of your Olympic/Paralympic blueprint is perfectly in tune with your social/security strategy for preventing more such attacks from occurring, then you risk diverting resources from what must very sadly, for a time, be the national priority.

It’s a strange thing, but I ended up concluding that the equally despicable Charlie Hebdo attacks in January actually helped to instil momentum behind an Olympic bid that the city was then still mulling.

On a visit a few weeks previously, I had noted that a sullen, rather inward-looking morosity seemed to have settled over the city, like mist off the Seine, as economic stagnation took its toll.

The sense of quick-flaring human solidarity sparked by those attacks – both inside the city and worldwide – appeared to jolt Paris out of its glum reverie, encouraging it to reconnect with an outside world to which it still plainly represented a very powerful ideal of personal freedom.

That outside world stepped up to the plate again this week with tears, resolve and an astonishing array of mainly cost-free, but nevertheless highly visible and effective, gestures of support, from Wembley to the Sydney Opera House.

I hope I am mistaken, but I would be surprised if this heartfelt reaction proves quite as instant and uplifting a tonic for a French capital wrestling with the consequences of this latest bloody and brazen attack as it did last time.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach was as supportive as anyone, describing the assault as “not only an attack on the people of France and Paris”, but “an attack on humanity and all humanitarian and Olympic values”.

Ultimately though, very high on the list of factors that will determine where the 2024 Games are staged must be a particularly hard-headed assessment of candidate-cities’ capacity to keep a multi-faceted and organisationally extremely complex event secure.

And, let us remember, four out of the five candidates in this Olympic race – Budapest, Hamburg, Rome and Paris, the exception being Los Angeles – are located in a Europe manifestly struggling to cope with the fallout from the latest convulsions in the perennial tinder box that is the Middle East. 

These are bewilderingly fast-moving times. Islamic State was no sort of a threat to the west nine years ago – although hard-line Islamism certainly was – and it may well not be a threat in nine years’ time.

France will, in any case, have ample scope for neutralising doubts over its capacity to keep events on its territory secure in the run-up to the IOC’s decision on the 2024 host in Lima in September 2017.

It is due, for example, next year to host Euro 2016, a competition featuring the 24 best European national teams in the world’s highest-profile sport - football.

As a logistical challenge, though the venues are spread all over the country, it does not compare with the Olympics and Paralympics.

Keep it safe, however, without undermining the festive tournament atmosphere, and Paris 2024 would probably have the wherewithal to put IOC members’ minds at ease and prevent the security issue from knocking it out of contention.

Perhaps I am overreacting at the end of a crushingly dark and emotional week.

The best way for ordinary citizens to counter terrorism, we are told often enough, is to go about our business just as before.

Among the torrent of social media messages of sympathy and support, I did notice, were a few along the lines of, ‘I really hope Paris wins the Olympics now’.

And yet, right at this moment, from my vantage-point on the other side of the English Channel, the Olympics, in Paris or anywhere else, seem a terribly, terribly long way away.