President Jacques Chirac left the hospital on Friday, chatting first with a knot of doctors and hospital attendants and then with reporters before leaving with his wife, Bernadette.

The reporters and some well-wishers had gathered outside the Val-de-Grâce military hospital shortly after noon for a closeup view of the 72-year-old president.

He looked tense but determined as he left the hospital where he was admitted Sept. 2 for a "small vascular accident" that impaired his vision.

His doctors gave him a clean bill of health, saying his condition was "very satisfying."

But they said he should refrain from air travel for the next six weeks. An aide said that ruled out a visit to New York next week for a United Nations session on poverty.