Bonjour religieuse, watercolor, 9" x 11" 
Who isn't captivated by the sheer beauty of French pastry?
But it's what's inside that really counts.
Are you persuaded by just a pretty face?
Any patissiere worth his pates aux choux is very much obsessed by what's inside. Top Parisien patissiere, Carl Marletti shows a luscious cross-section of a religieuse and shares the ingredients in quite an innovative way. Do visit.
The innards of a macaron from Patisserie des Reves' chef Pierre Conticini's cookbook, Sensations. Who knew what mysteries lurked within?
A page from a guide to Pierre Herme's L'Ecole Ferrandi. Herme mentions many times that he'd like to be an architect - but he is, isn't he?
A cross section of a piece of cake at Des Gateaux et du Pain. 
In my mad pursuit to paint French pastry I nearly fell in a faint over this FAB book, Encyclopedia of pastry dough - 100 kinds of pastry dough and petit gateau (旭屋出版MOOK) Essential reading for professionals and pastry artists. 
If only I knew a bit more Japanese besides 'Arigato...
Wouldn't it be lovely to know the French names of all these yummy ingredients. Any volunteer translators out there? 
Second best to knowing what's inside... 
Would be a proper knife to cleanly cut through the pastries to achieve a perfect cutaway cross section. A PBer mentioned Kyocera ceramic knives as the best and I'm getting one today. It's Japanese of course. Yellow Bird tells me if I had a proper knife I wouldn't make such an awful mess...c'est la vie
BONJOUR Inner Life of Pastry!
