Acting on impulse

Meet Ralf, Musician, Furniture Mogul and Dad.

Ralf  seems to have a habit of acting on impulse. This impulsiveness has had positive and negative effects on the course of his life but without it he certaily wouldn’t be where he is today.

Ralf moved permanently to Cap d’Antibes in 2014. He lives in a beautiful modern villa overlooking the sea on the Garoupe side of the Cap. I was introduced to him through Helen who also features on this blog. She told me that Ralf used to be in a Swiss boyband when he was younger so I thought he would make an intersting subject for the blog. We met at his home for a chat and a coffee  and I started by asking him how he came to be living in Cap d’Antibes.

What brought you to Cap d’Antibes?

I decided I wanted to leave Switzerland because of the weather. When it rained it was raining all the time. I had a house and a boat on lake Zurich and  that was actually quite nice but when it was raining its wasn’t so nice. It just rained all the time and for days on end. Not like here. When it rains here it’s for a few hours or a couple of days then the sun comes out again.

When I met my wife we came for a short holiday to the South of France in November 2007.  I remember that we sat outside in the sun just in our t- shirts and we thought WOW! It’s so nice here. It’s so beautiful.

One night we were going out for dinner in Cannes and we passed one of these yacht broker offices. We stopped to look at the boats in the window and there was one very nice one. We thought aaah that would be really cool to have a boat down here. Maybe we could go and look at it, just for fun. We don’t have to buy it.

The next morning we went to the office and went to look at the boat. It was all a bit of an impulse really, I am not sure what happened. We had a kind of brain blackout but that afternoon we owned a boat.

Unfortunately we should maybe have given it some more thought as the boat was far too big for us and also far too old. We found a berth in La Napoule and from then on we came down for almost all of our holidays.

When did you decide to move here full time?

That’s actually not something we decided straight away. In 2010 we had our son. At that point we decided to take a sabbatical with him on our boat in the South of France. We thought it could be fun and as he was still small so it seemed a good time to do it.

So we tried it but unfortunately it didn’t work out. Having a baby on a boat wasn’t as easy and idyllic as we had imagined.  So we went back to Switzerland but we still came down quite often to stay on the boat.

We loved coming here so much that every time we had to go back we thought it would be so nice to stay here. I had a business in Switzerland so I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to or was able to move here full time.

After much discussion, in 2014 we thought let’s give it a go, let’s try to live in the South of France. Our son was by then in kindergarten and we thought it might be easier with him being a bit older. So we agreed to try it for one year and at the end of that year we would decide if we would move here full time or go back to Switzerland.

Why did you choose Antibes rather than somewhere else along the coast?

We had sold our old boat in 2011 and a couple of years later I bought another boat. The new boat was berthed in Antibes so when we decided to try living here the obvious place to start looking for a house was Antibes.

We came down for a winter holiday with the intention of looking at some houses in Antibes town. I came down alone by car a few days before my wife and son. When I arrived it was a nice sunny day and I thought maybe it would be a good thing to check out the area. I took my bicycle and started to cycle from the port to Cap d’Antibes.

I was riding through the little back roads here and it was like love at first sight. It was so beautiful, really beautiful! It was winter but there was sunshine and there were so many flowers. The streets were also so quiet and I thought to myself it’s so wonderful here.  I instantly fell in love with the views and the colours and wanted to live here.

I knew it was expensive so I asked the immobillier about Cap d’Antibes and if it really was as expensive as everyone said. Could we afford it?

What did the Immobillier tell you?

He told me that he would find me something within my budget, and he did. He came up with 5 or 6 houses and one of those we bought.

The one we bought is in a good location but it was old and small so needed a lot of renovation. The house was also a bit too expensive for us so because of this I realized I would have to do all the renovation myself.

At the same time I was also commuting back and forth to Switzerland to run my business there. Basically the expensive new house, the renovations and the commuting to Switzerland every 2 weeks led to a complete burn out for me. I was also dealing with the uncertainty of our future. Would we stay here in France? Move back to Switzerland? It was all a bit up in the air.

It was a very stressful time and ultimately led to the end of my marriage.

What made you buy this second house?

When my wife and I separated, which was only last year, my wife had decided that she was going to stay in France rather than return to Switzerland. As my son lives with her every other week, I decided that I would stay here as well so that this 50/50 solution would be possible. So, we had to figure out if we would adapt our existing house on the Cap to accommodate both of us, or if we would buy a second house for me to live in.

I didn’t know what the best thing to do was. So I decided to look at some houses. I went to look at 5 houses. At that time I didn’t really know what I could afford and what was a good price..

The first house I went to look at was this one. I used to run past it every day so I had noticed the house before but assumed that it didn’t have a good view and also it was right by the street so I had kind of ruled it out. However when the Immobillier brought me here I thought WOW it’s better than I thought and It had a fantastic pool. So I worked out if I could finance it and managed to buy it.

I have only been in this new house for 2 months so I am in the process of unpacking really. Thankfully I no longer have to commute to Switzerland. I sold my furniture company last year so I am kind of retired. I still have things going on but it’s not really work. In fact I am currently in the process of building a music studio in the basement.

What’s the connection with the music, I heard that you used to be in a Swiss Boy Band?

Not strictly true. I started in electronic music actually. In 1980 when I was 12 years old I bought my first synthesizer . My parents arranged a down payment for it as it cost 2000 Swiss Francs. That’s how it started.

Whenever my parents went shopping to the big mall nearby, I had to go with them. On one of these trips I was walking around on my own and there was this record store. I spotted a record, a red one with a swan on it, and I thought, that looks nice, what is that? So I went into the shop to listen to it. This was in the days when record shops had headphones and record players you could use.  The record was by Depeche mode. It was their first record and I thought WOW what is that?? The sound was so new and I thought it was really something special. I was sucked in straight away.  I thought to myself That’s what I want to do! like 100,000 other young boys did at the time  I’m sure.

So I taught myself how to play music and to write songs in my bedroom. By the time I was 16 I played my first concert. After that I formed a band with a friend of mine.

What was the name of your Band?

Our band was called  Séance, it’s the French word for a session but internationally it means a spiritual session, Ouija Board etc.

On stage I used to wear a jacket made of artificial fur. It was black with long black hair. I looked like a gorilla, a black Gorilla. I already had my little moustache but back then it was black. My hair was dyed black too in those days. Everything was black.

We made 2 records and we played many concerts in Switzerland. Our second record was played on the official Swiss daytime radio shows so that was really cool.

I was composing, programming, singing, playing guitar. I was doing almost everything and my friend was organizing everything. He organized the concerts, marketing and the publicity which was a very important part of the band. Of course he also had an input to the music. It was a fun time. We were 20 years old and we had our little van which we travelled around in. Once we even played a concert in Copenhagen which was really cool and quite a big deal for us.

Swiss TV produced our video for Blue Dolphin Blue.

What happened to the band?

The band kind of fizzled out a few years later. My friend moved first to New York and then LA and it kind of died somehow so I needed something else to do.

I decided to start my own business. I had a shop where I was repairing synthesizers and also selling them. This was just after we stopped doing music. I was still playing music when there were no customers in the shop. Also I had to test all the synthesizers. That was fun too. I did a few solo things but not a lot.

My shop became quite famous . I had a few famous customers like Yellow because I was specialized in vintage synthesizers and the repair of them. Nobody else was doing that at that time.

After 8 or 9 years I changed direction completely and went into the furniture business selling mid-century  design classics, mostly Scandinavian.

How did the Furnture business come about?

I kind of ended up in it by chance. I saw a business opportunity and took it.

In 2008/9 and I wanted to buy a new desk for my music shop. The shop was nice but the counter wasn’t nice. So I went to a furniture shop in Zurich where they had a special Swiss Metal furniture system which was modular and I thought that would be perfect for the shop. I asked for a quote but it was so expensive and I couldn’t afford it.

A friend mentioned that he had heard that Swiss telecom had this modular metal furniture in their store and that they were replacing it.  He suggested I ask them if they would sell me some of it. So that’s what I did.

They said yes and put my name on the waiting list. When I got home I thought to myself, that means that  they are going to replace the furniture in all their stores. Swiss telecom had around 80 stores in Switzerland. Maybe that could be a business. So I went back to them and asked  if I could buy all their furniture from all of their stores. They wrote back and said yes you can have everything.

After a lot of negotiation on terms and the price I got everything. My plan was to sell this furniture over the following two or three years while still keeping the music shop. However after a while the furniture thing was a big success, much bigger than I could have imagined.

So what happened to the music shop, do you still have it?

Sadly a short time later I had to get rid of the music shop as the building I was in was being re-developed. Basically I was kicked out.

So I decided to focus on the furniture store. By this time I had a 900sqm showroom in a very good location. I was spread over three floors so I decided to have design classics on the 300sqmon street level and the rest of the space I filled with the modular furniture.

I kept the furniture shop for 17 years. It became a good business for me. After Swiss Telecom sold me all their furniture all the other companies planning store refits started coming to me and asking if I wanted to buy their furniture. It just went on and on and on and business got better and better.

That was my last business which I sold last year. Now I want to get back to making music.

What’s the plan with the music?

I want to build a little music studio in the basement of the house here.

I stopped playing music because I didn’t have time anymore. Now I have more time and that’s why I want to start again now. I still have some of the equipment from my music shop and I am really looking forward to getting back to it.

My real passion is music not the furniture. Furniture is just something I fell into.

I just want to kind of relax with the music. At the moment I am just playing a bit of guitar but it’s not the same I want to get back to the electronic stuff.

There is a neighbour of mine, he also makes music and he is saying, come on we should do something together. So maybe we will. Who knows.

Would you call Cap d’Antibes home?

For a certain period yes. I guess it depends on my son. He is seven now so maybe in 3 or 4 years we may have to decide where we will live based on his schooling.

That wouldn’t be the only reason we would leave here though. If we decide we want to stay here then we will find a good school here.

What do you love about the Cap?

What brought me here was the weather but I also love the sea and the colours. The light here is amazing.

I love that I have everything I need here and that I can walk into town. There is life here out of season which can’t be said of some of the other places along the coast. That’s what we liked about Antibes.  On a practical note I can also get to the airport easily and quickly. It’s just perfect for me.

It seems like that first trip to Cannes with your wife completely changed the course of your life. If you could go back would you have done anything differently?

Oh, that’s hard to tell…if I could go back, knowing what I know now, I guess I wouldn’t do it again….but I only know what I know now, because I did it.

From what you have told me I get the impression that you are quite impulsive. Would you agree? And do you think that’s a good or a bad thing?

Yes I agree, but still I think I do things well considered. Being impulsive, I think , is a good thing if you don’t want to stay in consideration mode forever.

Describe your typical day.

I do not have “A typical day” but let’s describe a day when my son’s here: I get up before 7 and have breakfast with him, then school run to Sophia Antipolis with the Twizy. When I come back it’s sport time…running, Gym or Watersport. After Lunch I do some work in or around the house and then I have to get my boy from school again. In the evening we have dinner then it’s Bedtime for him and NETFLIX for me. Sounds like an easy, relaxing day, but I’m exhausted when I go to bed. My agenda on my iPhone is still filled with lots of “to dos”….some of them are postponed from one day  to the next and continue being postponed sometimes for several weeks because I just don’t have the time.

What was a typical day for you before you sold your business?

Actually it was quite similar to the day described above, but add some work for my company and travelling time between Switzerland and Cap d’Antibes.

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