Paella in Annecy, France The first time I ever saw paella was in 2015 while visiting friends in Ferney-Voltaire, France, just outside Geneva, Switzerland. We spent the day wandering through the beautiful open-air market in Annecy when something stopped me in my tracks I saw this amazing pot of food and had to stop. Someone in our group said it was paella. I asked the man cooking it if I could take a photo. I'm not sure what his response was (I didn't speak French very well)