As natives of La Plata, we were looking for a name that took us back to the roots of our city. When we came across with “The Begum´s Fortune” a novel written by the genial Frenchman, Jules Verne, edited in 1879, we found an interesting story that connected us. In that story, Dr. Francois Sarrasin and Professor Schultze, are the sole heirs to 525 million francs left by their mutual relative, a deceased Begum of India.

With his share of the money, Schultze constructs a city of his own called Steeltown, where the main output is weapons of destruction. In contrast, Dr. Sarrasin uses his share to build an ideal community, based on positive values which he calls Frankville.

Frankville had certain peculiarities: "The project is simple… With a uniform wideness, tree-lined roads, the streets were named by numbers…”… “Every 600 meters there's a boulevard or avenue, in it’s crossroads there is a Square.”

There are coincidences between Frankville and La Plata, which was founded 3 years after Verne’s novel was first edited, so it’s natural to assume that the story inspired the city of La Plata. Moreover, the Engineer Pedro Benoit (in charge of the design of the city, that one day would become the capital city of the Province) was also French.

Nobody knows for sure if Benoit and Verne actually met, but the resemblance between the cities is suggestive. Furthermore, we have chosen that name because we want a city close to Sarrasin´s one; our purpose is to help build an “Ideal community” for travelers and people in general that is interested in interculturality.

In the 1990’s, our group of friends used to organize parties at the different country houses from La Plata. Just for the kicks of it.

In the first flyer, one of our friends wrote a popular phrase from Diego Maradona: “Que no se te escape la tortuga” (Don´t let the turtle run away). It means something like “Don’t be a Fool”.

At the time, this phrase wasn’t very popular, and the girls that were not soccer enthusiasts wouldn’t understand the meaning, and consequently they would ask us about it. Eventually, the question changed to: "Is there a Turtle Party coming yet?” And that’s how this catchy phrase became the brand name for those parties.

Eventually, these parties became very popular, and its principal motto was:“Be a good host to friends and newcomers alike and share a fun time.”

We would like to promote this motto here in Frankville with the turtle as its symbolic logo. We want to encourage people from all around the world to have fun as a big group of friends.