Philippe de Hauteclocque was homeschooled until he was 13, when he was sent to " L'école de la Providence", a Jesuit school in Amiens. In 1920, at the age of 17, he went to "Lycée privé Sainte-Geneviève", known as "Ginette", a preparatory school in Versailles. He then entered the "École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr", the French military academy. Each class has a name; his was "Metz et Strasbourg" after towns in Alsace and Lorraine returned to France by the Treaty of Versailles. He graduated on 1 October 1924, and was commissioned as a "sous lieutenant" in the French Army. Having chosen the cavalry branch, he then had to attend the Cavalry School in Saumur, from which he graduated first in his class on 8 August 1925.