Rossco
>>how the Arles Route compares to the
Camino Frances or Le Puy Camino in terms of difficulty? Also, will it be difficult finding nightly pilgrim accommodation on the Arles Route?<<
The Arles route is more difficult than the Frances. It's about on a par with Le Puy - a bit harder in places.
It's not difficult to find accomodation on the Arles route.
To elaborate:
As I remember Le Puy, the first two weeks were tough. We met several people who, like us, had previously done the Frances and the general consensus was that we were finding the early part of Le Puy was harder than anything on the Frances.
On the Arles route, once you get past Montpellier and into the mountains at and after St Guilhem le desert, it's tough country. At least as hard as Le Puy, and for some stretches it was harder. Before we tackled the Arles route we used always say that the Pennine Way was the toughest thing we'd done. Now we reckon that some sectors of the Arles route are just as tough - and in a couple of places it was just a bit harder than the Pennine.
You should take all of that with a grain of salt. Everyone's experience is different. It depends so much on temperament, and fitness, and age.
Accomodation: I used always shy away from using Municipal gites. They are so cheap, I thought that they must be lousy. And had a bad experience with a couple on the del Norte which put me off the idea. But we took a risk with a couple on the Arles route and were pleasantly surprised; clean, great kitchens, and cheap. We ended up looking for them. Many seemed to be associated with the local Office of Tourism.
However, we were early in the season (set off from Arles on 22 March 2018). Often we had the place to ourselves. That certainly made everything seem more spacious!
To find the accomodation we had the 2 volume guide from the Confraternity in London. It would have been good to also have the Miam Miam Do Do. We used that on Le Puy. Gives more options. But, in the end, we got by with what we had and chatting to the locals (and my French is hopeless).