"I'm looking forward to going back home, see what's happening and how we can organise ourselves to get out of the trouble we are in," he told reporters before boarding a flight at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport for Dubai where he was to connect to Dhaka.
He headed for the boarding zone pushing a small wheeled piece of luggage, waving goodbye.
The Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer will head the interim government after longtime and autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country.
The appointment came quickly after student leaders called on the 84-year-old Yunus -- credited with lifting millions out of poverty in the South Asian country -- to lead.
Hasina, 76, who had been in power since 2009, resigned on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Dhaka demanding she stand down.