Adieu NYC!
Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair have blown out of Manhattan, leading a paparazzi caravan on a high-speed chase to LaGuardia Airport en route to Washington, DC.
The cheerful couple were heading to their Georgetown townhouse and “Want their privacy,” said a source briefed on their travel plans.
The two were dropped off at the airport’s U.S. Airways departure entrance at 4:24 p.m., apparently in plenty of time to beat the travel advisory for weekend flights.
Strauss-Kahn and his Mrs. had left their TriBeCa townhouse with just three suitcases at around 3:45 p.m.
He wore a black jacket over a white shirt and khaki pants. She wore a black jacket, a gray, v-neck t-shirt, jeans and shiny black flats.
Even before they slammed the doors on their chauffeured white minivan, a small entourage of paparazzi had mobilized and begun gunning its engines.
Two cars, each carrying a tabloid photographer, plus four motorcycles, each carrying a driver and photographer for the French media, blasted off in pursuit.
Strauss-Kahn’s driver tried hard to shake his six pursuers — pulling a few quick left and right turns while still in Manhattan, then blasting up to 70 mph on highway stretches.
But the photographers stuck to him like glue, particularly Strauss-Kahn’s countrymen.
At each stop, the four French photographers’ motorcycles surrounded the right, left and rear of the minivan, which had dark, tinted windows. Behind each motorcycle’s driver, a videographer captured each moment of the chase.
Once at the airport, Strauss-Kahn and Sinclair departed their van in what appeared to be good spirits, despite the in-your-face cameras.
Other travelers and even airport staff joined in the photography, saving the moment with their cell phones.
Strauss-Kahn plans to put his Georgetown home’s affairs in order — possibly renting the place out, his lawyer has said.
He’ll also reportedly visit the International Monetary Fund he once helmed, likely next week.
“Like any former managing director of the IMF, Mr. Strauss-Kahn will be welcomed to the fund,” spokesman David Hawley told reporters.
Strauss-Kahn had served as the fund’s head for four years until mid-May, when he was arrested and indicted on lurid — and ultimately dismissed — charges that he’d forced hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo to give him oral sex and attempted to rape her.
Forensics confirmed a sexual encounter had taken place, but Diallo’s lies about her background, her financial motives and her actions in the moments after the incident led prosecutors this week to successfully ask a judge to drop all charges.