Questions about the refuges in the French side

[David planning Le Chemin de St Jacques/El Camino de Santiago]

What good questions!  Here's what I've concluded without actually
having been there, based on the resources I list on my web site as
I find them (http://camino.oakapple.net)

 Just as one's first route in Spain should be El Camino Francés,
 one's first route from France should probably start at Le Puy,
 at least during the summer season - there are some real mountains
 in the middle which I am somewhat apprehensive about in April.
 It is the most definite, best documented, best marked route,
 with more folks along the way expecting pilgrims, and the
 least amount of walking along busy roads.

 Although "refugios" are not common, there are plenty of relatively
 inexpensive "gîtes d'étape" and "chambres d'hôtes"
 along the way.   The gîtes seem to be in the $10-$15 range.
 These are mentioned in the guidebooks.
 Not to mention the sacred text, the Guide Rouge, which might be
 helpful for less-spartan nights
 in the larger towns, though you wouldn't want to carry
 the whole thing.  (You cut out the parts you'll need - as suggested
 by a general
 text useful for describing how to hike in France though not referring
 to the specific problems of Santiago pilgrims - France on Foot
 by LeFavour, available from amazon.com.)

 RECENT guidebooks that I know about include the CSJ's
 by Alison Raju
 (CSJ also publishes one for Vézelay which, at the time of publication,
 involved numerous alternative routes, mostly unmarked - that may
 have changed), the FFRP topo-guides, Alison Raju's book covering the
 whole Le Puy-Santiago route, which I don't have, and in French,
 a complete Le Puy-Santiago guide from Editions François Lepère,
 which I was able to obtain from amazon.fr, and Miam-Miam-Dodo, which
 I got from CSJ, covering to SJPP.

 There is a brand new guide from Chamina, available from amazon.fr,
 covering routes from
 Lyon to Le Puy or Cluny to Le Puy that I will be relying on in April.
 There is also an Editions François Lepère book describing
 a route between Vézelay and Le Puy, for those who would like to
 try that; it is listed by amazon.fr but when I tried to order it last
 year they were not able to obtain it.

 And if you want length, according to the CSJ bulletin there will be new
 guides from Alison Raju, I think, covering from Nürnberg to Genève to
 Le Puy, and also it's stated that there is a route marked now from Prague
 to Nürnberg.     That's all for the very adventurous who don't like knowing
 exactly what's going to happen on a new route.   Perhaps lots of
 walking along roads though since it's new?   An inherent general conflict
 of these new endeavors is
 trying to decide whether to follow historic routes exactly, which are now often
 busy roads, or build new footpaths that are more like the ancient routes
 in feel
 but traverse natural scenic areas that ancient pilgrims probably avoided
 when they could.     It was almost all natural scenic then, so they didn't
 want to go out of their way to see any more.

Well that's what I've learned in the last year.       Those with actual
experience may correct my mistakes.
And I hope I got all the accent marks right!