The dead city is slowly awakening, but there is still an element of dread in the air. The grand return from the summer holidays ”” la rentrée ”” is preoccupying France, but anxiety abounds about what exactly is being re-entered.

La rentrée is a new beginning, as if the new school year provides new chances for everyone here to reform, renew, replenish and re-engage. People make resolutions, as at New Year’s, to be thinner, faster, smarter, better.

But this year, the public mood remains sour, with optimism hard to find and open worries about inflation, purchasing power and the position of France in what seems a suddenly less stable world.

The French are like “eternal children who return to school,” said Alix Girod de l’Ain, a columnist at Elle magazine. “There is a sacralization of vacation,” since nearly everyone takes August off, with la rentrée as “an important moment because we officially change our rhythm and enter a new cycle.”

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Everyone in France gets health insurance. When someone has a difficult disease, such as cancer, the national health system steps in and pays for 100 percent of the care.

Unlike in the United States, insurance in France is not linked to employment, nor is there a lifetime limit on how much treatment a long-term survivor like Hubert can get.

The guarantee of health insurance is the first reason why cancer experts around the world look to France as a model for cancer treatment and care. Another is that cancer care is well organized at the national and hospital levels. To treat patients, a hospital or clinic has to prove it meets national standards for high-level care. It must treat a minimum number of patients a year, and it must use a team of doctors, nurses and others to provide coordinated care.

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