Their Past Loves

When salvage specialists Retrouvius redo an 18th-century Paris triplex, it's hard to tell what's old-and what's older.

- Dana Thomas

Houses can be like the heart-sometimes it takes another chance encounter to fall in love. So it went for Leila Brink and Niels van Beusichem, a Dutch couple in London, who decided in 2018 that, because of Brexit, they should return with their three children to the continent. They chose Paris because it was close to their summer place on Île de Ré on the French Atlantic coast, and it would be easy for van Beusichem, a banker, to relocate for work. The first place they visited was a quirky triplex in an 18th-century building on the Left Bank. Though quaint, with its cobblestone courtyard, and quiet-it sits on a short, little-traveled street-they decided to keep searching.