Looking for a flat

The list for a fortnight of viewings. The first entry is la résidence, and it is not what the English word means. In a French advert une résidence is a whole managed development: a block or a group of blocks with a caretaker, shared grounds and a service charge — l’appartement est dans une résidence calme is telling you about the estate, not about the flat. English « residence » is a formal word for where one person lives, so « I live in a residence » reads as either a euphemism or a mistake; and « residency » is something else again, a legal status or a doctor’s post. The English for what the advert means is « a development » or simply « a block of flats ». The French word also runs into official language — le permis de résidence, la résidence principale — which is the sense an English reader will assume and the one the advert does not intend.