After starting a family, Olivier Neveu left city life and bought an old townhouse hidden in his historic village’s maze of lanes, 50 steps up from the street, with no car access. Nestled in the old center of Vals-les-Bains, France, the house is tall and skinny, with four levels (including a cellar carved into the bedrock) stacked into the hillside. It was once two humble two-room homes, where villagers kept goats below and climbed outside stairs to bed.