Ajda and Deirdre,
I speak neither French nor Spanish (although I am trying to learn - without too much success I might add!) and have walked 2 Caminos in both countries - the 1st From Toulouse, and the second from le Puy both ending in Santiago. On both occasions I tried to minimise my expectations and just "go with the flow" - although I had done an incredible amount of research beforehand which allowed me to do that. On both occasions though, when I was experiencing difficulties, the Chemin/Camino provided.
Ajda, you will be amazed at how friendly people are (and if they are not, for some reason, you probably wouldn't choose them as a friend anyway). With some of my Camino friends that I walked with, 30 minutes or more would go by without us even talking.
Deirdre, I found that the basic bonjour etc (and being able to say where I was from and that I didn't speak French!) was OK. Of course you get far more out of your adventure if you do speak the language, but that and mathematics are the 2 weaknesses in my education and I find language extraordinarily difficult. However, a smile always goes a long way, and I found that music spoke a language all of it's own. On a few occasions I sang for people and suddenly, people who had no English could say a couple of phrases, which meant that with my couple of phrases of french, we could have a "conversation"!!!!!!. To compensate for this inadequacy, as a few of the Australians on this forum will attest, I do masses of research. I then find that I have the freedom to chop and change things around having got a good working knowledge of the places that I pass through. This same prinicple applies for me for my next Camino in July when I start in Bar-sur-Seine - Vezelay - Camino del Norte. I plan an extremely detailed itinerary and keep adding things to it as I find them out (things like the population of towns, to indicate size), full moon, fetes, concerts on and where events like the Tour de France will be in relation to where I will be (we will almost cross paths this year). By knowing all this I am then able to make informed decsions as I go on the Chemin. If you choose the Le Puy path you will be able to manage fine. A good tip is that the Tourist Offices have staff who are exceptionally helpful and gracious.
Happy planning, Janet