ABSTRACT
Love is not simply a feeling, but instead a great labor that can bring together two people in a very intense partnership, normally marriage, but many times also outside of the marital bonds. Marie de France illustrates, by drawing on the idea of trails, how lovers throughout her lais have to pursue innovative paths or are taken almost automatically on mysterious trails closer to or away from their ladies, and vice versa. In Marie’s texts, movements or the use of trails create the essential energy to realize the ideals of (courtly) marital love and happiness.
