You mentioned in an earlier post of Macaronicité that macarons seem only to have hit Australia fairly recently. While they seem to have been around for some time now in Paris, it's also true that they're becoming more commonplace there (well, here, actually) too. You only have to go into your local bookshop in Paris to find a number of different books on how to make macarons, many of them inexpensive, but hélas, all in French.

Interestingly, I saw in the latest addition to the growing range of macaron recipe books a section called 'Macarons ratés' (i.e. ones that you've messed up). It gives the unfortunate cook some delicious sounding suggestions on what to do with your soggy, crusty or just broken macarons, including a tiramisu and a crumble.

So, I guess thats… um.. encouraging to know that even if I get them wrong, my macarons can still be used for something edible!

For the floral flavours, a light butter cream works nicely if the aroma is well-judged. However, a thickened cream filling will sometimes be better suited to a flavour that you might want to be fairly ephemeral, dissipating quickly in the mouth. As gelatine preparations permit a light mousse-like consistency, this can be the best option.

I agree with Lennyk: a nice article, but I hope not the last one!

I've been wondering which of the techniques you mentioned would lend themselves better to more subtle filling flavours. I was thinking in particular of violet, lavender and rosewater (well, the latter is perhaps not subtle, but it's not rich and buttery).

Nice article to conclude with,
how cold are macarons normally served ?
I was under the impression that they were served at room temp, is the filling expected to be as stiff as the filling in an oreo cookie, which happens to be fairly stiff at room/warm temps also.