Didier Dagueneau was just 52 when, in 2008, his microlight plane crashed in the Dordogne.

WSJ: Will Lyons on Wine: A New Taste for Old World Sauvignon Blanc

But then the Dordogne has been a misery magnet since 1337, when the Hundred Years War began.

FORBES: How foie gras was my valley

Wack's last years were spent at his home, a 14th century chateau, in the Dordogne region of France.

ECONOMIST: Guru

By the 1980s, the native wild sturgeon in the estuary's Dordogne and Garonne rivers was near extinction and a fishing ban was imposed.

WSJ: Black Gold: French Caviar Is �� la Mode

It's a castle that looms 150 meters above the Dordogne River.

FORBES: How foie gras was my valley

Our room, named Cardinale, was at the very top, and in the early morning you looked out and saw ghostly mists rising up from the Dordogne.

FORBES: How foie gras was my valley