Falcon - Little John said that there were very few refuges for pilgrims and that with no cell phone (he never takes one) he couldn't book hotels ahead.
This was the email I received from my friend who has hiked most of the Camino Routes and parts of the VF:
i loved the walking in France - i did only 5 days - and i even loved walking in rain and wind - it is just so lovely in some parts of the countryside, but my lack of french eventually got to me. its impossible to get along in the little towns and with fellow walkers - not pilgrims but mostly hikers, who do not speak or understand a word of english or german. i cannot get a bed booked, i cannot find a meal or food to buy, i cannot find a person to try and book a bed for me - and you have to book as most places are full a day or two in advance, and there are only a few beds in private houses in a village - like a town will have 5 beds in one house, and 3 in another, and that's all. no pilgrim gites or big dormitories like in Spain or the Le Puy route in france which i did in 2008 and where i did not have such a problem with the language. you did one call and got a bed. now here you got an answering machine, my "speaker" will leave my phone number, they phone back, i dont understand, etc etc, .
My gat se deksel - the last straw - was when i had to get a taxi for 8 Euros to get to a room that i managed to book with the help of someone - it was miles from the route. i just felt that i am not able to do this anymore. people also show irritation with you when you ask them to phone for you -with my phone - and one guy said to me - if you want to be in france, you must learn to speak french. he is quite right, it is impossible without french.and there were a number of other things that i found hard to stomach - no internet anywhere, and when you find it, its an aserty keyboard and slow. i found places are dirty - bathrooms never seem to get cleaned,you sleep on the same sheets as many other hikers before the past weeks, and there is not a support system for pilgrims like in spain. its not that i want to be carried along but i also want to enjoy this experience. its also very expensive. my last day of walking ( of the only 5 days!) i got a fright, when i walked 30 kms to a town which i really wanted to see - a small medieval town in a gully with a lovely abbey - and as there was no bed available, i walked there anyway, and came back to the previous one to sleep, using 2 buses, which took 2 hours. when i was sitting in Montpellier bus station, miles out of town in the cold at 8 pm waiting for the last bus to take me back to Montarnaud where i was going to sleep, i thought : what happens if there are no more buses, what if i have to stay here with no more than about 40 euros in my pocket ( as I had left my big pack in the village i was returning to) and i just realised i cannot do this anymore.